I haven't had too much time to look at the images, and can't tell very much from them. What I can tell you is that going by certain design elements in the border, the rug appears to be a very old khorassan. Additionally, the design lends itself to a similar type of feel to the "Ardebil Carpet" as seen in the victoria Albert Museum. Sometimes it's spelled ardabil.

Really nice looking rug, I'd have to see a lot better images than this to say what it really is or if it would be worth anything. My guess is it would be worth something.

From the pictures, I can absolutely say this is a rug that would get me into the rug scene too. Very pretty.

That's pretty funny Mosaic. My suspicion is that he was sincere in his hustling the rug out of his shop. Having seen a carpet that sold for millions, those big ticket items don't end up rotted in people's basements. And condition is a very big piece of the puzzle when it comes to worth. The condition as you describe and how it looks in the photos, looks pretty rough. In my rug class, the teacher talked about what a rug we are assessing would bring in perfect condition, and then start taking away for problems, and the cost of restoration/repair. It sounds like it probably had mold and water rot. Is that fair to say. If so, that's pretty much end of story. I saw some incredible rugs in my teachers storeroom that he said would have some pretty high price tags on them if they were perfect. As they were, he said he coldn't get more than a few hundred bucks or a couple of thousand for any of them. And none of them were in such bad shape that I wasn't drooling over them. There are, after all, only so many Stradivarius carpets in the world. And then the question of value is an interesting one. It seems that the super high price carpets are either mamoth size or have some fascinating historic provenance. Like the Doris Duke carpet, that sold for so many millions in part because of what it was, in part because of Doris Duke, (Doris Duke, who cares?) but I think the real value of the carpet was in the commentary by one of the greatest art historians in the world that the carpet was the, single, and highest apex product of the Abbasid period of imperial carpets. Not because he said it, but because it was true. I am sure the man who bought it never heard of Doris Duke.