This is really quite unusual. I'm fairly certain that my party would kill a beggar if they thought he had a +1 ring of protection on them.
My game is pretty unique though, so I shouldn't really say that. They don't have anyone to interact with, and there are no stores, so they don't even have a choice of selling items. They've found two significant treasure vaults - one at the bottom of a lizardman pyramid, and another in the bottom of a dwarven stronghold. In both cases, there were racks and racks of +1 weapons that they just left behind (they are 12th level), since they knew this stuff wasn't very valuable. They're also filthy rich. They even came across a room that was not terribly large, but was knee-dip filled with gems of all shapes and sizes. It's funny, because they're totally greedly, and filled their pockets (and bags of holding) with all these gems, but they don't have anywhere to use them. Of course, by the time the party makes it back to civilization, they'll be retired.