Documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed jointly by Hallmark and American Greetings indicate the U.S. Postal Service plans to expire millions of Forever stamps on November 30th, 2011. It is unclear if the stamps will simply be voided, or whether an additional "add-on" stamp will be made available to make the Forever stamps usable. The add-on idea is mentioned in the memos, but many of the details have been redacted.
Language appearing near the end of one of the memos, however, indicates that purchase of the add-on stamp would be tied to a customer's credit card, which would be charged the prevailing add-on rate when the stamp is postmarked.
"There is no truth to the rumor that we are implementing a 'Forever, Forever' add-on stamp," said a spokesperson for the postmaster general's office. The spokesperson declined to elaborate, but did not deny the existence of the memos. The spokesperson referred reporters to singer/songwriter Ray Davies. Davies, leader of the now defunct rock and roll band The Kinks, issued this statement:
Time goes by it takes us all,
Nations crumble and empires fall
And who are we
To think that we would always be,
You see nothing lasts forever,
Nothing lasts forever.
The memos indicate that the post office is relying on a definition of "forever" that does not include the concept of infinity. "When it comes right down to it," says Hank Yoo, a postal law instructor at the University of California-Berkeley, "...forever is whatever the postmaster general says it is. It's complicated, but the memos appear to make a distinction between forever and eternity. Frankly, their definition would really screw up a bus schedule or office pool, but it's not unprecedented in postal regulations. We hear all the time of letters and postcards that were seemingly lost forever, and then magically show up in their recipient's mailboxes 40 or 50 years later."
Executives at Hallmark were not surprised by the memos. "We knew this was coming. We just wanted to get a firm date. We expect this will alter our printing and delivery schedule for the 2011 Christmas season, since so many Americans will want to mail their cards even earlier than usual," said Hallmark’s Chief Operations Officer.
An anonymous source at American Greetings stated "You can expect an aggressive ‘Thanksgiving card’ marketing campaign from us right after Halloween."
Existence of the memos was rumored after the Forever stamps became difficult to obtain, some say intentionally. There have also been scattered reports of postal customer abuse.
"I knew something bad was going to happen," said convenience store owner Mel Brankmeyer of Mayville, Wisconsin. "I went to the post office in Milwaukee to load up on Forever stamps before the last price increase, and they told me I had to wait in a separate line. The line was really long. We were forced to stand for what seemed like hours. There was no water or food, and they played this awful music the whole time. Not loud enough to be able to identify the songs. Just an awful drone, on and on. Then, when I got to the front of the line, they told me I could only buy 48 stamps. I was really pissed. It's obvious they're trying to discourage us from buying Forever stamps."
A postal clerk at Milwaukee's main post office, who identified herself only as Counter #3, denied any wrongdoing. "We were told it was okay to make Forever stamp customers form their own line," she said. "I've heard rumors that we turned off the bubblers* or made them stand outside, and that's just not true." Notably, there were no Forever stamps in the vending machines at the Milwaukee post office at the time of the interview.
Speculation about the design for the new Forever,Forever add-on stamp is a popular topic on the internet. The consensus among postal bloggers is that the new design is a hand with two fingers crossed, but photographs of the rumored design have not been released.
*water fountains