The Brits certainly know how to celebrate and commemorate the royal family with branded merchandise and souvenirs. The British gift shop industry – much of it brick-and-mortar stores full of items like plates, mugs, ornaments, tea towels, plush animals and flags – is significant. Gift shops at royal landmarks alone, such as Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Clarence House, Frogmore House and others, bring in about $20 million a year.

Window displays at the Buckingham Palace Gift and Souvenir Shop in Victoria, London, last year, featuring plush likenesses of the queen’s beloved corgis and palace guards.

Upon Queen Elizabeth II’s passing on Sept. 8, tourism to England is booming (authorities expect about 750,000 to gather in London for her funeral on Sept. 19) and gift items with her likeness are now increasing in popularity. The late sovereign – also queen of several Commonwealth realms, including Canada – passed away at 96, after 70 years on the throne.

Small-batch artisans, like those that sell their wares on e-commerce site Etsy, have been shipping out souvenirs such as commemorative T-shirts and mugs.

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Now, gift shops in Canada too say that British- and queen-themed items are flying off their shelves. According to Carl and Rita Hulme, owners of Blimeys British Store & Gift Shop in Essex, ON, Union Jack flags have been particularly difficult to keep in stock. The store has become “a bit of a hub for people from Britain,” says Carl Hulme.

Shop owners also say they hadn’t ramped up stock proactively since the queen’s death was relatively sudden. Soon queen-themed items will be phased out now that her son has been named King Charles III. Cool Britannia, a shop across from Buckingham Palace, expects to receive new King Charles-themed gifts in the coming days.

“We had a whole burst of online orders last night, and a lot of stuff has gone out the door today,” Michael Blumberg, an employee of Lambert of London told the Washington Post the day after the queen’s passing. “We didn’t expect her majesty to leave us, so it’ll be a week or so before the new stock arrives.” He added that queen-themed items had sold out by midday on Sept. 9.

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In addition to Etsy, e-commerce giant Amazon is also seeing more requests for queen merchandise. Resellers on Amazon are now offering a limited-edition Jubilee Barbie doll for $700.

This limited-edition Mattel Barbie doll of the queen was released for her Jubilee earlier this year; resellers on Amazon have it listed for up to $700.

Earlier this year, the U.K. and Commonwealth realms celebrated the queen’s 70^th Jubilee, which generated more than $326 million in memorabilia and gifts, according to the Center for Retail Research. One of those was a nontraditional “God Save the Queen” commemorative coin and related NFT from the Sex Pistols, a British punk band.

However, the surge in value for every piece of queen merchandise won’t be as swift as people might expect – those with rarer items from earlier in her reign (or those with precious metals such as gold and silver) may be more in luck. Still, it goes to show that “moment merch” evoking a noteworthy point in time – as well as a time gone by – tends to increase in value, whether it’s monetary or sentimental … or both.

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