Yan pirate booty

I'm currently dating (again! Yay!) a guy who does antique dealing and estate sales and auctions and stuff. Yesterday, he announced that he'd been hired to take care of the estate of a local woman who recently passed away, and who'd been a knitter. Her stash was quite huge! He's thinking that with the yarn, he's going to simply offer it and ask for donations to charity (I guess the heir(s) don't care about making money from the yarn). He asked me for my opinion on what he should say if people ask for a suggested donation per skein. I was a bit flummoxed, because yarn prices can range so wildly. From the big-picture shots he showed me, it looked like there might have been some nice stuff in there. I told him that he ought to start by looking at fiber content, and gave him a gradation ranging from all-manmade stuff (acrylics, etc.) up to all luxury fiber (silk, cashmere, etc.). I also suggested that he look for words like "handpainted" as keys of higher value, too. I couldn't begin to think of what kind of actual amounts he should suggest, mostly because I don't know what kind of percentage of value he's hoping to get. I just advised him that generally, knitters know their yarn, and know the value of what they're getting. Most of the knitters around here, especially when a charity is involved, are not going to be dicks and cheapskates, trying to grab up everything and throw fifty cents in the jar.

Of course, I am DYING to get my hands on some of this yarn, myself! When he announces the sale/donation event, I'm going to be right there, you may depend on it. :) YARN. OMG. YUM.