converting databases form SQL_ASCII to UTF8

We are moving our databases to new hardware soon, so we felt it would be
a good time to get the encoding correct.  Our databases are currently
SQL_ASCII and we plan to move them to UTF8.

So, as previously noted, there are certain characters that won't load
into a UTF8 database from a dump of the SQL_ASCII database.

Here's our problem.  We planned on moving databases a few at a time.
Problem is, there is a process that pushes data from one database to
another.  If this process attempts to push data from a SQL_ASCII
database to a new UTF8 database and it has one of these characters
mentioned above, the process fails.

So, now the question is, is this effort even worth our effort?

What is the harm in leaving our databases SQL_ASCII encoded?

Thanks for any insights.

--
Until later, Geoffrey

"I predict future happiness for America if they can prevent
the government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson