Royal wedding gift bags being flogged for thousands on eBay

Some of the Community Champions who were lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are cashing in on the event by selling their commemorative gift bags online.

The monogrammed goodie bags are fetching thousands of dollars on eBay as fans of the royal couple bid to get their hands on a piece of history. As a way of remembering their part in the royal couple’s special day, guests were each given one of the hessian bags, which contained a selection of items featuring Meghan and Harry’s initials.

The bags were filled with bottles of water, a fridge magnet, a large chocolate coin, shortbread biscuits, a 20 per cent off gift voucher for the castle shop and a programme for the ceremony, which was held at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Within hours of the service ending, many of the free bags started to appear on the online auction site ready to be snapped up by the highest bidder.

And it seems that four days after Harry and Meghan said “I do” people are still going crazy for the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex as bidding on several of the listings has already exceeded $1000, with the Daily Mail reporting that one bag sold for a whopping £21,400 ($38,000). 

The royal couple invited 1,200 members of the public, dubbed Community Champions, to share their special day in recognition of their community and charity work.

They were described as having “made their “cities, towns and villages a better place to live” and were invited to watch the proceedings unfold from within the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Not only did they get to watch the arrival of 600 VIP guests, including the Queen herself, Sir Elton John and a host of showbiz stars, they were also given a clear view as the newlyweds locked lips for the first time as husband and wife on the steps of the chapel.

Some of the guests flogging their memorabilia seem to have even thought ahead about the potential money-making opportunity and photographed their canvas bag outside of the wedding venue to prove its authenticity.

Some of the sellers hawking the gift bags say they are raising money for charity, with one writing in the description box: “Selling to fundraise for a 3 Peaks charity challenge I am doing to raise money for The Prince’s Trust.”

Others, however, seem to be making most of the change to cash in.

What do you think? Is it disrespectful to cash in on such a special day? Or would you do the same?