Honest Ed's is having another huge sign sale

Honest Ed's is planning a repeat of its wildly successful sign sale next month. On Saturday April 11, starting at 8:00 a.m., the store will be selling off more of its famous hand-painted signs.

If last year's event is any guide, there will be massive demand for the cards, which advertise sales on everything from silk underwear to table salt. Thousands of people lined up around the block in March 2014 for a chance to snag one of several thousand signs, surprising staff. General Manager Russell Lazar said he was taking signs off the shop floor to meet demand.

Prices ranged from $1-100 and shoppers were limited to a maximum of three purchases. All proceeds went to Victim Services Toronto.

Every one of the discount store's famous signs is created by a pair of in-house painters, Wayne Reuben and Doug Kerr. Between them they produce 70 to 80 signs every day, all of them in the store's own font, called "Slash."

This year Lazar estimates there will be between 6 and 7,000 signs and in-house flyers up for grabs, significantly more than last year's 4,000. Several "decades old" signs will be available for $80-100, but most will be priced between $5 and $25, with a portion of the profit going to charity.

Lazar said he was reluctant to part with the older signs last year.

"You fall in love with them. You don't want to release them."

Honest Ed's is due to close in December 2016 to make way for a housing and retail development.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Image: Andrew Williamson/blogTO.