Royal Wedding gift bags on eBay for £30,000

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Swindon Travel Hub

A number of the guests given a ‘golden ticket’ by Harry and Meghan to see them marry have already sold their free goodie bags on eBay for tens of thousands of pounds. Claire Oliver, 31 (pictured), was one of the 1,200 non-VIPs invited to spend the day outside St George’s Chapel on Saturday and given the enviable chance to see the newlyweds and their famous guests up close.

Miss Oliver, who is from Cambridge but lives in south-east London, works in HR for Troup Bywaters, an engineering group heavily involved in offering apprenticeships to get more young people in work – a cause close to Harry’s heart.

On the day of the wedding she tweeted: “I got to watch the royal wedding right outside Windsor Castle in this amazing setting. Such an amazing day #Golden ticket #Royal connections’ and filmed herself twirling with joy in the grounds.”

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But hours later she had posted her free commemorative gift bag on eBay, which has now sold for £21,400.

The canvas bags inscribed with the couple’s initials contained a souvenir wedding order of service and welcome letter from Meghan and Harry, other freebies included a bottle of Windsor Castle water, a giant chocolate coin, a tin of shortbread and a voucher for 20 per cent off in the castle shop.

Last night MailOnline reported that they had spoken to Miss Oliver about her auction she said she didn’t want to discuss it and she is among more than 25 other guests who offered their bags to the highest bidder – some have reached more than £30,000, it emerged today.

The 1,200 Community Champion guests arrived at 9am to see 600 VIPs including the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles as well as the Clooneys, the Beckhams, Elton John and Oprah Winfrey turn up for the A-list wedding of the decade.  Miss Oliver declined to comment on her decision to auction the bag.

And as 120,000 well-wishers fought for space outside the castle these privileged 1,200 were able to get great views of the newlyweds as they kissed outside the chapel and paraded past in the royal Ascot Landau carriage.

But within hours of the event finishing dozens of their free hessian gift bags were being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Many of the sellers had clearly planned to do it in advance because they photographed the items outside St George’s Chapel to ensure they looked genuine on eBay.

And fierce bidding saw offers for bags reach five-figures but those trying to cash in have been heavily criticised.

One seller said: ‘Buy a piece of history and memorabilia to celebrate a momentous special day for Britain’s and the royal family’.

Another hoping to cash in on the international market said: ‘I’m happy to send the gift bag internationally if your happy to cover the postage’.

One later claimed they would donate the cash to charity but had initially ‘forgotten’ to mention it on their eBay posting.

Swindon Travel Hub

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