He assumed it would be useless by now and was going to throw it away...
Guess what? On test it registered as still having 46 of it's original 50 bars nicely present and correct
Even more, I bagged a couple of genuine Activa rear corners on eBay and these, according to the boxes were even older, being 1998 vintage. Both tested absolutely perfect!
So there it is, so long as the spheres are unused, they do keep for very long periods...