One of the 1,200 non-VIP guests invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle on Saturday has sold her goodie bag for an astonishing £21,400 ($28,629).
That’s a huge figure, far beyond anything we might have expected. Whether the buyer will actually pay is another matter. It seems unlikely. Each guest received one of these bags, meaning there are at least 1,200 in circulation. There’s also a long history of pranksters registering false bids for high profile items on eBay.
The non-VIP guests were largely made up of people Prince Harry has met through his charity work over the years. They were given an area to stand outside the chapel, where they could watch the ceremony on a screen and see the couple descending the steps afterwards.
Each bag contains a bottle of mineral water, a tube of shortbread, a visitor’s badge, a big chocolate coin and a fridge magnet among other assorted items. All are presented in a hessian bag marked with the couple’s initials and the date of the wedding.
Other identical specimens are selling for up to around £1,500 ($2,004) on eBay, which would be more in keeping with other royal wedding memorabilia we’ve tracked in the past.
Pieces of wedding cake from the marriage of Charles and Diana have sold for as much as £1,756 ($2,346).
However, interestingly, a piece of cake from the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton achieved $7,500 in 2014. That result suggests that interest in this new generation of royals is far higher than the previous generation.
Demand is particularly acute in the US, with companies like Julien’s Auctions regularly featuring royal wedding items in their sales. We predict that pieces from this most recent wedding will be particularly popular, given Meghan Markle is an American herself.
