It's a bummer they can't even take it as a trade in for a couple bucks.

The mirror is what you would basically look at when shooting the pix, when you take the pix it flips up out of the way to expose the film. Mirrors are kinda expensive to replace and a pain in the rear to look at if they're scratched. If the camera was in the basement then it probably has some mold or something inside the camera, which is expensive and darn near impossible to completely remove. Yup sounds like a souvenier to me.

Don't be surprised that cameras decrease alot in value. They're kinda like computers as far as resale value goes, only goes down.

Yesterday I was at my camera store and in the used dept. they had the first SLR camera body I ever bought. I originally bought it for $400, they were selling it for $149! Right next to it was the Elan, the one I drooled over that I couldn't afford when I got mine. It was only selling for a measly $20 more, and I know at the time I got mine the price difference was more like $8-900. That's why you always buy the best you can afford that will do basically what you need it to do, and just enjoy it as long as you want to, regardless of how much/little it cost or what it's resale value is/was.