Blow for royal souvenir collectors
By CNN's Peter Wilkinson
 |  Charles and Camilla are to marry on April 8. |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 CNN's Walter Rodgers gauges reactions to the royal wedding announcement.
 CNN's Becky Anderson takes a closer look at Camilla Parker Bowles.
|
|
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Queen Elizabeth II seems to have started a trend by deciding to miss the civil wedding of her son Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles.
To the dismay of collectors, it seems the commemorative mugs and plates that were so popular in 1981 when the heir to the British throne married his first wife Diana Spencer are going to be hard to find.
The Prince of Wales has always struggled to win public approval for his new bride; now even top retailers like Tesco and WH Smith say they will stock little in the way of wedding memorabilia.
"We don't see it as an opportunity," Retail Week magazine quoted a Tesco spokesman as saying.
Department store group John Lewis sold 1.5 million glass and china products for the queen's 2002 Golden Jubilee but says it has placed no special orders for the royal wedding.
And on the streets of London and Windsor, where the wedding will take place on April 8 -- as well as on online auction site eBay -- it seems the ghost of Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash, still reigns.
"Diana stuff always sells -- even now," said Windsor souvenir stallholder James Toomey.
Pointing to an array of decorative spoons on his stall near Windsor Castle, he told Reuters news agency: "Diana always comes top with the customers, followed by the Queen Mother and the queen. Charles is always bottom -- even behind his sons."
This view is borne out by the number of royal items for sale in Britain on eBay: type in "Charles and Camilla" and 54 are on offer but for "Charles and Diana" there are 845.
Much of the memorabilia for Charles and Camilla is also firmly tongue in cheek, ranging from comedy masks of the couple to mock £50 notes featuring the heads of Prince Charles and his bride, who will be known after her marriage as the Duchess of Cornwall.
And reflecting the apparent confusion about the wedding, which has seen the venue switched and doubts raised over the legality of royals marrying in a civil ceremony, you can also bid for a spoof invitation.
"The tone of the whole invitation is intended to be hilarious and 'mickey taking' rather than offensive and insulting and contains no offensive language!" says the blurb for the invitation offer.
