'Don't just stand there!': Honest Ed's hosting final sign sale

Two months before permanently closing, Honest Ed's will start selling the last of its iconic, hand-painted signs this weekend.

Beginning Saturday, thousands ofpun-heavysigns will be up for grabs, at astarting price of $1.

The signsare a defining feature of the discount Toronto department store, which will close on Dec. 31 after 68 years in business.

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"Many of the signs bring back all sorts of memories for me," said owner David Mirvish, son of Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish.

"I didn't think I'd be quite so overwhelmed by it as I am today."

'Honest Ed's' after-dinner hobby

Mirvish said crafting the cheeky, often outrageous slogans was one of his father'sfavourite hobbies.

"After dinner he would sit at the dinner table at home and write out these slogans," said DavidMirvish.

"And he'd write it and press hard and it'd impress itself right onto the dining room table. And it didn't make my mother happy. But that was his creativity and he had a lot of fun."

Each sign hand-painted

Everysign from over the years was hand-painted by an in-store artist, meaning each one is slightly different.

"It's personal, it's labour intensive, it's of another era," saidMirvish, noting that there arestill two sign painters working at Honest Ed's.

"I don't know where you'd see it in Canada today."

Reds and yellows

The classic signs lean heavily on red and yellows colours that EdMirvishthought would attract attention.

"He said, 'Make it any colour you want as long as it's red,'" DavidMirvishsaid, laughing.

Many of the signs also make fun of "Honest Ed" Mirvish said his father never took himself too seriously. But the store and the customers were a different story.

"My father's rule was you could say anything about him. You could make fun of him. But you never made fun of the merchandise, and you never made fun of the customer," saidMirvish.

"Those were the two sacred rules."

20,000 signs already sold

Honest Ed's has already sold around 20,000 signs in the lead up to its closing. At previous sign sales,sign-craving customers have formed lines stretching around the block.

Mirvishsaid it's been a pleasant surprise to not see many signs being resold on places like e-Bay.

"It means that people recognize that they're handmade and there won't be these things in the future and they will actually treasure them as memories," he said.

There will be a limit of 12 signs per customer at the sale, which starts on Saturday at 8 a.m.