By the way, the first comment I saw on that “Taxi” video made me smile (and might have caused a bit of dust to get in my eye 
I live next to some railroad tracks. Erected on my property, and next to the tracks, (no fences) is my ancient (1912) operational semaphore signal. To the vast number of the populace it’s just a signal next to the tracks. But a railfan will know that there aren’t more than than a handful of these things in the U.S. outside of museums. During the summer travel season I occasionally get visitors asking for permission to see it up close. Then I operate the thing and it blows their socks off.
And they’re more impressed when you send the 5:15 to Wichita off to Missoura. 
Avast! I’ve got the whole run of EC Segar’s Thimble Theater comic strip in 6 large hardbound books.
poidh
A lot of amusement park ride parts like the grip bars from “Hangman” and several coaster brakes from West View Park. “Geee-- those boat oars look kinda big and heavy to me”.
I have a few custom pool cues and cases. My most valuable would be by Ernie Gutierrez who builds Ginacues. He’s been building since the 60’s and probably makes, on average, way less then 100 cues a year. Outside of the small collector hobby, he would be all but unknown.
Here’s one example of the type of things he does.
http://cuezilla.com/cue-54-ginacue/
I’m also on the wait list of a couple other top builders, one of which is over 10 years long. :eek:
When I was into collecting shit, I bought Lilliput Lane cottages whenever I traveled to London. At one time I had Schloss Neuschwanstein, which now sells for about $500. Should have held onto it, I guess. I sold most of them on ebay and gave others to my daughter.
I collect old medical books, and also have an Amazon account on which I sell all kinds of things. I found an 1892 book by Dr. Osler at the tail end of a rummage sale, when they were selling things for $5 a box, and found out recently that this book, which is in very poor condition, is worth at least $1,000.
:eek: 
I actually don’t even care if anyone buys it; I just think it’s cool that I have one.
Among other things, it has an 18-page chapter on typhoid fever, and about the same amount of space devoted to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, mostly because not only did very few people live long enough at that time to get those diseases, not much could be done about it if they did.
Trinitite isn’t obviously recognizable, but it’s distinctive enough that if I saw a piece, I’d ask if that’s what it was…
As for the bulb - it’s way older than xenon-arc technology! It’s probably 1960’s vintage, and I’m sure that it’s either vacuum or inert-gas filled. It has tungsten “sand” inside that can be swirled around to remove envelope blackening. I decided to take it down, clean the dust off of it and take a photo. The coin is a 1972 $1 piece for scale.
I have a baseball from Imperial Japan. I think that’s pretty cool.
I have a Randall #14 and a Chris Reeve Sebenza. If those names mean nothing to you, then you wouldn’t appreciate them even if I said here what they are.
I have a Gerber Paul and a Boker Ceramic…oh, and a Winchester 1920…
Pretty much. Nothing else looks quite like it, although I guess you could polish a piece of aerated lava rock and claim it was a piece.
Combining my “cool stuff” list - I’d love to have the piece of trinitite that Heinlein got from the site ca. 1947 (and kept in a lead-lined box, because it was still mildly radioactive then). I know who has it. Also who has a set of books he once owned… and refuses to talk to me about buying them even though they’d never miss them. Sigh.
Oh, yeah? Well, I have a fairly nice serving bowl that Echo and the Bunnymen ate potato salad out of, around 1988. Can’t remember the exact date, but it was in Urbana.
I don’t think we’re doing this right …
Various Odd-ball motorcycles.
I have a rock in my yard with all three aluminosilicates. These are the classic example of what metamorphic petrologists call index minerals. They have identical chemical compositions but depending on the temperature and pressure conditions in which they cooled they form one of three distinct looking minerals. This rock cooled pretty much right at the triple point on the phase chart, though, so it has all three of them!
The mic is not what the enthusiasts would notice. It Al Schmitt, winner of 21 Grammys and his autograph thanking me. The first question is always, “How do you know Al?”
I have a handful (armful?) of watches that no one in the States knows, an IWC, my Breitling Chronomat (still my favorite), a Baume & Mercier, and a Rado, plus a few miscellaneous cheaper ones.
Japanese are much more into watches. Wearing the Piaget gets some really wide eyes. I have to admit, I got it on a very special (and legitimate) deal.
TokyoBayer, I’d definitely recognize your watches and possibly ask you about them. 
One of my friends spent a summer rebuilding an old Triumph with his father-in-law. I remember the day he showed it off to me, pointing out all of the different bits and pieces he had to find online, telling me about its 6-volt positive ground ignition, and other interesting stuff.
I recalled how a Harley rider once told me that nothing but a Harley Davidson can park next to other Harleys…unless it’s something cool like a Triumph or an Indian.
But I wouldn’t have recognized my friend’s Triumph as anything other than “a motorcycle.” I’m sure most motorcycle folks would have recognized it.
Harley people are just full of bons mots like that. They have to have something to keep them amused while their bikes are sitting there, leaking oil. Those of us who have other brands are too busy having fun riding to worry about things like what is parked next to us.