Goodbye, Fresh Ink

I am very sad today. I just found out some news that is far more disappointing than an empty mailbox: "fresh ink," my favorite brand of cards from Hallmark, has been discontinued. I was so excited when we pulled into Springfield and I spotted a Hallmark store less than five minutes from our apartment...only to walk in there today and have the saleslady inform me that Hallmark stores are no longer carrying fresh ink. Something about the square cards/envelopes being a pain or some other such nonsense.

My dear friend Kathryn introduced me to fresh ink cards two summers ago and since then I've been addicted. I use them for every occasion and rarely send anything else, whether it's birthdays, weddings, thank yous, or just a random note to say hello and make a friend smile. They are hilarious and they are also cheap (only $1.99). Now, sadly, they are no more. And to my dismay, all the other cards I looked at today were incredibly cheesy (sing-songy poems and the like) or ridiculously expensive (I refuse to pay $3.49 for a greeting card) or both.

Perhaps this calls for one of my famous customer-service campaigns...


*****UPDATE 1/11/06: Interestingly enough, the Google search that most often leads random strangers to my blog is "fresh ink cards" or some variation thereof. They find this post--and then they get misinformation. So if that's you: Hi, and here's the real scoop! fresh ink is, wonderfully, still available. Obviously the manager at my local Hallmark store didn't know what she was talking about, and though she has stopped carrying the line (she told me it was too much of a pain because people got so confused over the special envelopes....mmm-kay), I can still purchase those beloved cards at another Hallmark in the area. Unfortunately they don't have my favorite cards...but that's another story.