Bravopilot I have not noticed the problem with irons in the past. It is possible that I'll get these clubs and find out that the shafts are rusted internally and they could potentially break or cause other issues. But if they aren't severely rusted I would expect them to perform pretty close to as new. They don't look like they were heavily used and so I don't expect fatigue to be any different than the 15 year old irons I play now.
I did have a favorite driver in the past (a DTG Turner something clone) that stopped performing after 3 or 4 years of use. I assume it cracked somewhere although I was unable to detect it if so. All I know is that I started mysteriously hitting drives on average 30 yards shorter with it, but when I switched to other drivers the average remained what they always were with those clubs. So something went wrong with the club, but I don't know what. A shame too, as that driver had me scoring at my best. Sadly that only means I was scoring in the 80's more often than not, but it was my best period of golf.