Ruby Red Slippers Fail to Meet $2 Million Reserve at Auction

The 1939 Ruby Red Slippers did not sell on December 16 2011. The slippers were consigned to Profile In History auction with a minimum reserve of $2 million.

Ruby Red Slippers Do Meet $2 Million Reserve

For months the shoes made headlines and attracted a lot of collectors and investors attention as they are considered big ticket items in the collectibles industry.

Estimates were being given that the slippers would fetch up to 5 million. However in the end the Ruby Red slippers failed to meet the opening bid reserve of $2 million. In my opinion the slippers are probably worth $1.5 million since they didn’t sell.

Apparently there were several pairs of Ruby Red slippers used in the original 1939 movie The Wizard of Ozz. However, today only four pairs are known to exist.

Ruby Red Slippers Do Meet $2 Million Reserve

The Smithsonian is the custodian of one of the pairs. The Smithsonian personnel indicate that the Ruby Red Slippers are one of the most popular items in their museum attracting millions of people a year. The shoes have been loaned to the Smithsonian for over 30 years.

This particular pair of shoes was loaned to the Smithsonian for many years. The owner is Kent Warner and his pair of Ruby Red Slippers are marked # 7 on the inside of the shoes. Whats very neat about the slippers is that they display scuffs on the insoles of the shoes providing strong clues that these # 7 specific shoes were used in the close up of the Wizard of Ozz movie when Dorothy taps her shoes three times.

Other significant items in the sale that did not sell were the Cowardly the Lion Suit used in the same movie. The reserve price was also set at $2 million with no bids high enough to meet the reserve.