Blockquote"It’s just really amazing that someone discarded hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of commercial aviation parts, even if they are non-functional."
That should really not be that surprising. Our shop discards millions of dollars of ‘non-functional parts’ every year because they are life-limited or cracked/corroded/worn/damaged beyond limits, and there are only so many people interested in scrap for desk/wall/office corner pieces.
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Without a paperwork trail that valve probably is worth $30.
There’s really no reason to comment on your statement, orthocole, other than to say that it gave me a great morning coffee laugh!
Unsafe parts should be smashed beyond recognition.
People have been known to patch them up - the case with reject horizontal stabilizers for Bell 206 helicopters, for example. Bell had punched large holes through skin, some vermin filled them with autobody patching material.
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I used to work for a bicycle shop, where part of the job was destroying parts replaced under warranty. This ranged from the elegant (snipping a tire’s bead with wire cutters) - to brutal (hacking off the part of the frame which had the serial number, using hammer and anvil to flatten components).
It could be fun.
Russia will buy it. They have a dozen A330-300s (and many others) that they stole when their leases were revoked following the invasion of Ukraine. Airbus won’t support or maintain them so they’re all out of spec now and written off as total losses. Russia has been scrounging for parts ever since.