Dan,
Its a very hard question to answer. I myself have had this happen twice. The first item is still in my collection and would be very hard to part with. The second was in my collection and I had decided to auction it off. I ended up buying it back and after having it for about 3 months I was contacted by someone on this board asking me what had happened to the item. I told him that I re acquired it and was just planning to hold on to it. He then told me a very touching story of why he wanted the item ,it touched me so deeply that I ended up selling it to him.
I guess the best way to handle it is to go with what you are comfortable with. Bottom line its your item to do what you wish with .