Well phrases like right place right time right contacts and a dollop of luck spring to mind.
Tbh, old collections have downsides too, depending on prior care of preservation and storage environment. Risk of importing new types of infestation into the lab is an issue.
Specimen problems can come to light after acquisition,
Eg mildewed Charaxes antennae in 3 boxes, required patient tender loving care: I used a sable brush with surgical spirit, which contains methyl salicylate (smells nice and might even have some small property of breaking down fungal hyphae) plus a tiny amount of castor oil (which is cytotoxic and relatively non-volatile, so leaves an ultrathin residue keeping the antenna dark and smart as in life, and suppresses risk of recurrence). Very gentle brushing along antennae to remove strands of mildew, and a touch on the eye globes which are almost always affected too, and sometimes the proboscis, brings back the clarity of outline. So easy to break antenna if one has a momentary lapse of concentration or visual depth perception.
And don't use British Surgical Spirit on wings... that's another story!
Re-setting rarities which have suffered wing movement badly, or have unmanageable pin-spinning syndrome.
Preserving faint or foxy labels.
Confirming IDs.
De-greasing any oily specimens, particularly freshly emerged fat-bodied female lycaenidae of larger species, that were evidently sacrificed as soon as wings were hardened...
Mending dropped abdomens or wonky wings.
Assessing ancient pins for corrosion before lifting and repinning them in fresh display drawers
Etc etc.
Then new labelling in the curated drawers.
A labour of love that makes for an intimate knowledge of the new acquisitions.
Well worth the effort though, when one sees the end results...
Charaxes marieps, karkloof capensis, karkloof karkloof, and one column of some vansoni, with karkloof larval instar head moults to demo. (Just waiting for me to print and pinpoint the drawer labels).