coolandstressing replied to your post “Is it really stealing "his stuff" when ninety nine percent already...”
I've always imagined the vast majority of "his stuff" were either things people surrendered to him as part of a deal or just random bric-a-brac he acquired himself?
I mean, some of it is definitely detritus that washed up with him during the curse--Emma’s mobile, probably the dwarves’ steins and pickaxes (although we don’t know for sure that they didn’t trade them to him as part of a deal before Rumple was imprisoned just before the curse). Belle has at times done inventory with the intent of returning items to their former owners.
But there are also things there that WERE his via trade or win in the DC (Pandora’s Box, the wands, Gepetto’s parents, Killy’s hand) as well as random non-FTL pieces (the Mickey Mouse phone). And as far as I can remember, none of the actually magic or useful items has been claimed to belong to anyone except Rumple--let alone to the heroes.*
