Can someone explain to me the etiquette with the random loot that seems to be lying all over the place with no pcs present?

For example I was on the other night and I walked into the pissing crone. On the floor were a few minor magical items. There was 1 other person on the server, and they were in upper. Now I assume these things are leftovers of a party division of loot and (for whatever reason) nobody wanted them.

So what I'm wondering is this stuff up for grabs? If not I think it would be cool for people to dump it in a trash can or something..it just looks weird to see valuables lying on the floor of the common room of an inn.

When DM's are not looking, everything is up for grabs! Seriously though, if its on the ground, I usually consider it the same as having been left in the garbage pile. Put it to good use, if you want.

Yes, its no doubt leftover loot from quest spoils. All yours!

Sweet. Still....it looks wierd from an IC point of view..obviously valuable items (or at least useful) just laying around.

Not useful enough to be collected.

If you've ever played in a group that splits that way, often people will say "I can't use/don't care for that stuff, keep it" and leave. There's often basically junk gear people can't use, but isn't in demand enough to be worth keeping to trade. IC, why would you bother to haul it to a dump cart when chances are some beggar/the owner of the tavern would take it anyway if they found it?

One mans junk is another mans treasure and all that shizzle.

Oh don't get me wrong, my characters initial gear was all stuff that was scavanged off the floor, ground and from the trash cart. It just looks wierd that, in between a thug and a drunken half-orc lies a set of perfectly serviceable, minorly magical weapons. It seems like that stuff would disappear very quickly, especially in poor areas.

That is indeed what would happen, but the dms simply don't have the time to search the whole server for midly valuable junk and then possess the nearby npc to take it.

Of course they could make some script to erase stuff on the ground after a certain time, but I suspect they have far more important things to work on.