Just curious. If it wasn't for the internet, I wouldn't even know about Queen. If it wasn't for ebay, I wouldn't have Queen stuff as it isn't around in the USA, that I know of, except for current dvd and cd releases. 99% of what I have bought has come from the U.K., of course. At any given time there are approximately 350 Queen items for sale on ebay. I know a lot of these are selling from their homes, but if I took a trip to the U.K., would I find a gazillion stores/shops that are overflowing with Queen merchandise - old and new.
Not really. You would be able to get the albums and DVDs but not much merchandise. You can get 'Icon' cards with Freddie on. Sometimes there is like a canvas of him displayed on a window, from specialist shops and fan artwork on stalls. Sometimes Freddie is the main feature on a magazine but not too often.
I got a Freddie puzzle for Christmas lol its like a painted image of him. Mainly you can just get stuff on him from specialist shops but its mostly artwork stuff.
in the Uk if you go to magor shops like HMV you can get most cds and dvds but the only other merchindise you are likely to find in HMV and shops like that is T-shirts (not many though) and the odd book. If you want to get good merchindise you need to look at local small independent record shops to find things like picture discs and things like that but Ebay is probably the best place (for me anyway).
More seriously, there was a great deal of US merchandise in Vegas for the musical. Ditto the tour. If/when the musical tours there will be more. If/when the album comes out there will be an explosion of promotional activity.