yup i just loaded old save and checked that
funny thing having the boot in your bag is not enough, you have to wear the boot lol
check the screen

Guys I had the same problem. I gave it to my Valkyrie, but in the griffin island in Arlania, theres a shop which gives you the Ice Spider Quest.
I don't know if I was lucky, but it had the Old Boots in it. Oh and that was after I gathered all the artifacts and did the "Beer Quest" for the tavern.
Check it out, maybe you have it there too.

what does it sell
 

Does it sell items and spells or only units?

I started up a new game and cheat-coded my way through the game today to get to Arlania.

Sure enough, the old boots you find buried in the tutorial dungeon need to be worn when you visit the inn. I had to go there to get the elf island quest, then get the new customers quest, then go there again for him to tell me I had a parcel waiting for me. (Not do the quests, just receive them first)

The parcel itself lets you buy factional troops in whatever increment would put you at the max for your leadership.

We should start a sticky topic with the items which give special benefits:
Boots + 1Def = Mysterious parcel
Bowl + 5Mana = Noncombat speech option for dragon on the pirates islands

There must be more

There's a dragon on the freedom islands? O_O

I've never seen it.

There's one in a a cave connected to a bird of happiness(I think) quest.
As for the boot if you're like me, found three of them and made them all into crystals then you could hope for one more are just hit shift+~ and type "item old_boots".

thank you.

I'm not throwing away any of my starting equipment, just in case. It seems, if there's a trend, they all get used for some special quest somewhere. So, if that's the case, there's the shield and the sword remaining.

problem here you will have to equip the item to trigger the quest .
so i don't think you will be using the starting items the whole game .

@sethmage there's something you can do with the necromancer heart before you give it to the prince .
i read it somewhere here that you can use it in the catacombs to release ghost .. i really forget and i'm lazy to search the forum