Estate cleanout Manhattan team finds festive MacDonald stamp book just in time for holidays

Just in time for the holidays, I found these red-and-green plaid stamps that have added a festive touch to my Ridgewood, Queens, rubbish removal office. They have an interesting story, which I’ll share, but this isn’t the first time I’ve found ones just like them.

A couple of years ago, I did a story on some green S&H stamps I had found an estate cleanout Manhattan job.  S&H Green Stamps were trading stamps, popular in the United States for more than 50 years, from the 1930s to the 1980s. S&H is short for “Sperry and Hutchinson company,” which was founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson.

The stamps that I most recently found are called MacDonald Plaid Stamps, which were first produced in 1961 under the company E.F. MacDonald, which was established in 1922 by Elton F. MacDonald. The company specialized in creating programs that would help increase sales for its clients. These stamps were no different.

Not unlike the way credit card companies and travel companies offer points and miles that customers can redeem for cash and other goods, these stamps were distributed to customers who shopped at various retailers, including grocery stores, drug stores, service stations and other stores. Customers could then exchange them for gifts and other merchandise.

Fun Fact: E.F. MacDonald reached nearly $222 million in sales by 1968.

In this estate cleanout Manhattan job and several others, I’ve found countless antiques — paintings, jewelry, coins, appliances, furniture — you name it, I’ve found it. Check out some of my other great finds here on the blog:

More Trash Treasures:

• Richmond Hill, Queens, history comes alive in New York basement cleanout
• 200-year-old wine or liquor bottle found in Queens cleanout
• DiMola Bros trash company encounters Brooklyn Heights brownstone history in Brooklyn interior demolition job

DiMola Bros Rubbish Removal
1640 Summerfield St.
Ridgewood, NY 11385
Phone: 718-326-6969
Fax: 718-326-7979
NGDimola@aol.com / http://dimolabros.com

~ by DiMolaBros1956 on December 21, 2013.