DINSDALE OP SHOP $2 MUG SPARKS BIDDING WAR, WOMAN OFFERS $47 AND A LASAGNE

A ceramic mug priced at $2 in a Dinsdale op shop on Tuesday morning triggered a four-way bidding war that ended with the shop closing early, one woman in tears, and a handwritten sign on the door reading "NO MORE MUGS TODAY".

The mug — cream, chipped, Charles-and-Diana commemorative, missing Diana — was placed on the shelf at 9.14am. By 9.31am, three separate customers had claimed to have touched it first, and a fourth had entered the shop specifically because she'd seen the others arguing through the window.

Op shop volunteer Raewyn Kohu, 71, said she'd never seen anything like it in fourteen years on the till. "One of them offered me forty-seven dollars cash. Another one offered forty-five and a lasagne. I said the sticker says two. They said the sticker was wrong. The sticker was not wrong. I put the sticker on."

Bidder Melanie Prasad, of Frankton, told The Daily Yarn she'd been collecting royal commemoratives "since before it was ironic" and that the Diana-less mug was "a missing piece, literally". Asked if she'd actually secured the mug, Prasad said: "No. A woman from Nawton has it. She doesn't even know what it is. She said she liked the shape."

The woman from Nawton, contacted at home, confirmed she'd paid $2 and was now using the mug for tea. "It holds tea," she said. "That's what a mug does. I don't know what everyone's carrying on about."

The op shop reopened Wednesday with a new policy: royal memorabilia is now behind the counter, and lasagne is not accepted as tender.