Vintage 1960s Realtors Decal 🏠 Embla Crest Real Estate Boards Silver Foil Sticker

Remember REALTORS Decals? 🏡 1960s REALTORS Decal, Embla Crest, Sealed on Its Card

Size: 3 1/4" ~ Factory sealed, little to no wear. ~ It is unknown if the adhesive still works, as that is usually the first thing to fail.

Embla Crest, a rare vintage 1960s National Association of Real Estate Boards decal, is a highly collectible item. Factory sealed. These are likely the last of their kind in the world, serving as a poignant reminder of a time when we celebrated our community and their contributions. That association name hasn't been used since 1972, so nobody's printing these again, and once the sealed ones are gone they will be very difficult to acquire.

It's a silver foil emblem with the association's name around a night skyline of houses and towers, and the Realtors' seal line at the center.

It is unknown if the adhesive still works, as that is usually the first thing to fail. It may require assistance, also known as glue, to affix. Little to no wear.

Please refer to the pictures. It provides details and is considered part of the description for you. Realtors unite! (Ex Realtor here.)

🏷️ What's Printed on It

• NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REAL ESTATE BOARDS
• REALTORS ARE ACTIVE MEMBERS OF CONSTITUENT BOARDS
• Card: EMBLA CREST, EASY TO APPLY-SELF-STICK, 49¢

It comes on a short yellow Embla Crest card that sits low in a clear hang bag, with the hang hole punched in the bag. The back of the card is plain.

🔎 Look for This Seal

The words in the middle are the Realtors' seal of the day. Members ran that same line with the association's name in their newspaper ads and city directory listings from at least 1950 to 1971. A December 1960 ad in an Idaho paper put it right out there: "LOOK FOR THIS SEAL when you BUY." The wording goes back further. A 1927 Washington Post piece explained that the term was coined to mean an active member of a constituent board of the national association, and that's exactly what the seal says.

🏡 The Realtors

The association was founded in Chicago, Illinois on May 12, 1908 as the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges. Its Code of Ethics came in 1913 with the Golden Rule as its theme, and the preamble has opened with "Under all is the land" in every edition since 1924. In 1916 it took the Real Estate Boards name printed on these decals. That same year Charles N. Chadbourn, a past president of the Minneapolis Real Estate Board, came up with the word Realtor. The association registered REALTORS as a trademark on September 13, 1949.

The current name, the National Association of Realtors, was adopted in 1972, and the block R logo followed in 1973. That dates these decals to before 1972. Members include residential and commercial brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, counselors and other licensed real estate professionals, in about 1,600 local Realtor boards and associations, and the association still holds the trademark on the word Realtor. By 2024 it had about 1.5 million members.

🏷️ Embla Crest

Embla Crest sold self-stick emblems for the professions, the services, states and lodges on little hang cards. I have one Embla Crest card that prints the Atlantic Emblem name and Walterboro right under the Embla Crest banner, as Atlantic Emblem Co. of Walterboro, South Carolina. That card's five-digit ZIP code means it was printed July 1963 or later, and its 803 phone number puts it before the Lowcountry moved to 843 in 1998. Fittingly for a Realtor's decal, Walterboro itself started as a move to a better location. In 1783 Lowcountry planters went looking for a healthier place to live in the summer months, and the town grew from there.

🏡 Display

It's a great gift for a Realtor, a broker or a new agent who just passed the exam, and it looks sharp framed on its card in an office.

Bring this bit of vintage memorabilia home and let it brighten up your room!