Just acquired a 500 round vintage shot-shell lot

[KC9LDB]

So I have a few questions.........well comments.......
I collect what I like, I don't care about value or looks. If i find a old box that looks cool, i keep it. I buy ammo lots very very often, ive came across cartridges all the way back to the twenties, odds and ends even 40 rounds of 375 H&H magnum!
These shotshells were going to be meant for shooting. My question is... odds of them working? Odds of having some real monetary value here? Should I be looking for certain ones? Around what vintage if kept in a cool dry place will these not go boom anymore?
I had some really nasty looking ones and I dissembled them and kept the shot for reloading, took out the powder, still perfectly flammable however some of the primers particularly on some western Mark series shells did make no pop at all. I took down some of the Remington and I had more of a small pop with lots of smoke. Noe these rounds were some of the oldest and were in not so good shape. Most of the collection is paper and looks safe to fire.
So out of what you can depict out of the pictures, do I have anything worth saving?
My plan is if it dud's out, I would extract the shot out of it and inert the rest of the round.

 

[jonnyc]

For me, a very rough rule of thumb for the few shotshells I do get is:
Plastic cases get shot, paper cases get dumped in my For Sale bin for cartridge shows. Only very rare or unique shotshells seem to sell as singles, but scarce old boxes go well, even empty.

 

[Bob Wright]

A man who lived here in Memphis died a number of years back. From what I heard, he had the most extensive collection of shotshells in the world. Don't know what became of his collection or notes.

Bob Wright

 

[jonnyc]

I hope it got back into the collecting world and not the landfill.

 

[KC9LDB]

Im going to try and fire a couple this upcoming week, weather pending, ill let you guys now the outcome!

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

I have a fair amount of papr shotshell ammo that came from my grampa. I tried a few in the sxs he always shot them out of. They went bang and the clays I shot with them broke. Ammo was at least 40 years old. It was, and still is properly stored.