Whether it's out in the street or in a relative's forgotten closet, we're bound to find something that we can't identify at some point.
And if nobody around us knows what it is, it's not like we can usually google a vague description for what we've come across. Sometimes that actually works but it doesn't happen reliably enough that we can bank on it.
However, Reddit's r/whatisthisthing community has a significantly better track record and, as these people found out, they can work surprisingly quickly in their quest to give you the right answer.