Rare Hermes Birkin Bag Sells For Over $200,000 [SLIDESHOW]

Hermes Birkin

Birkin Bag Smashes Records And Budgets

The price of a Hermès Birkin bag typically starts at roughly $9,000 -- and that's IF you can even get one -- there's a very long waiting list for the coveted accessory. But, the other day, a rare version of the bag has made that outrageously priced Olsen's Row backpack look like garbage-bin chic.

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This week, a red crocodile skin Birkin bag, with white gold and diamond hardware, was sold to an anonymous bidder for a record-breaking $203,150, at the Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. $203,150.

The auction price wasn't expected to exceed $80,000, but we imagine some wealthy Texan oil tycoon got carried away with the bidding for his wife. Revealing a little of the bag's background, Matt Rubinger, director of luxury accessories at Heritage Auctions, explains "It was owned by a lady from Florida. She bought it in 2006 and had it as the trophy of her collection but then Hermès offered her the same bag in black and she thought that she might actually use a black one."

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Alongside the red Hermès masterpiece, countless other jaw-dropping handbags reached exorbitant prices. A blue crocodile Hermès with palladium hardware sold for $113,525, a shiny red crocodile Birkin with palladium hardware went for $95,600, and a Himalayan crocodile Birkin with palladium hardware fetched $80,663.

Explaining the demand to the Wall Street Journal, Rubinger says: "Most of the bags were bought by collectors who never used them, or only used them once. And many women simply don't have enough space in their closets for all their accessories." Oh, how sorry we must feel for them.

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Rubinger went on to recount a story of how, at one dinner party, instead of flowers as her table centerpieces, a client had bejeweled Judith Leiber handbags.

You can flip through our slideshow to check out the bank-busting Birkin bags, as well as some Judith Leiber purses that were also included in the auction. We're finding it difficult to keep our green-eyed monsters at bay.

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