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In the 66 years that Honest Ed’s has flogged bargains, there is one thing the store has never sold: the iconic hand-painted cardboard signs, mostly in red, yellow and blue, that it uses to advertise merchandise inside the stores.

But the store has saved the signs. On Monday the store will put more than 1,000 of these signs up for sale, to raise money for charity. In keeping with the store’s discount philosophy, the cardboard signs are going cheap.

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A one-metre by 50 cm sign reading, “Ed’s Hot Deals on Heaters,” for example, will sell for $4. A heart-shaped sign about a metre high, reading, “Valentine’s Day Sweets for the Sweetie,’ is $4.

“It’s real Shakespeare,” joked Russell Lazar, the store’s general manager, who has worked for Honest Ed’s for 55 years. “People want a piece of Honest Ed’s.”

The biggest sign, about 2.5 metres by 1.2. metres, backed on wood and covered in plastic, depicts Ed Mirvish, the late owner of the store, coming out of a birthday cake, and reads, “Happy birthday to me. Everyone’s invited and everything is absolutely free.” That will retail for a princely $100.