Yahoo Finance eBay bans royal queue wristbands on sale for hundreds of pounds
Auction website eBay has removed listings selling wristbands to join the queue to see Queen Elizabeth II lying in state after they received bids worth hundreds of pounds.
The yellow, gold and pink wristbands are issued to members of the public who join the queue snaking through London to Westminster Hall, where the late sovereign’s coffin is on display for mourners.
The numbered wristbands allow people to leave the queue for food or to use the bathroom while returning to their correct place.
Wristband listings seen by The Telegraph were going for as much as £350. Others were being offered for between £50 and £100. Because the wristbands are colour coded each day and have a line number, they would be useless for attempts to jump the queue.
eBay said it had deleted the listings for breaching its policy on selling tickets for events on its digital marketplace. An eBay spokesman said: “These items are against our policies and we are removing them from our site.”
The listings included used and unused wristbands for the queue, which at times has been estimated at more than 24 hours long and stretches as far as Southwark Park.
One listing said: “Queen Elizabeth II Lying In State Gold Queue Wristband. Used – see photos from the day! Friday 16th September, 11-hour queue, same day as David Beckham (was about an hour before us). Joined queue before 6am.”
The monarch’s coffin will remain in Westminster Hall for public mourning until 6.30am on Monday, meaning the queue will be closed later on Sunday. It will then be moved to Westminster Abbey for the state funeral, before being transported to its final resting place in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which is managing visitors to the lying in state, has warned people not to depart to join the queue to “avoid disappointment”.
