Harry Potter Not American Enough for Patriotic Stamp Enthusiasts

Accio fake outrage!

The U.S. Postal Service is currently in trouble — like Professor Umbridge detention-level in trouble — for bypassing the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (the committee created to research and recommend new stamp subjects) and producing a new line of stamps featuring characters from the Harry Potter franchise.

The postal service is currently under major financial stress. In fact, inside sources (Griphook the Goblin — whoops, I gave it away!) say that their vault and Gringotts is practically empty. It’s their hopes that by partnering with a corporate entity as big as Harry Potter, they will bring in a whole lot of galleons and turn a new generation of youths into stamp enthusiasts. (They know that kids have actual entertaining shit like iPhones now, right?)

It’s a great idea, except, wait a minute — didn’t the Boy Who Lived live in the United Kingdom and NOT America? Yes, and this is something stamp enthusiasts are made about.

From the Washington Post:

“Harry Potter is not American. It’s foreign, and it’s so blatantly commercial it’s off the charts,” said John Hotchner, a stamp collector in Falls Church and former president of the American Philatelic Society, who served on the committee for 12 years until 2010. “The Postal Service knows what will sell, but that’s not what stamps ought to be about. Things that don’t sell so well are part of the American story.”

The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee is mad about Harry Potter stamps. I’m mad that I don’t have access to Owl Post. We all have stuff to get over.