I wonder if game designers realize that this actually fucks people like me up, if i get an item that is said to have sentimental value i'm going to put that in a chest and ignore it because i don't have the heart to sell it and have it just get atomized when the vendor's inventory refreshes.
I love Enderal for actually letting you hand over some items you get early on, you can totally just ignore them or sell them but if you're like me and have the instinct to keep sentimental items then you get to be absolutely flabberghasted when you realize the game accounts for this.
Yeah, sometimes it's weird - for example when a king gives you a sword that has been in his family for generations, you go to the merchant and it's not worth more than something you looted on a bandit.