It all began when once again I needed a stamp and didn't have one. When I drove down to the Post Office, the line was really long. But I wasn't licked yet. I rushed over to the stamp machine. Would you believe there was a line there as well? No way I was going to stick around for that.

Besides, I knew an amazing solution was on its way to me from DYMO. It arrived the other day and after trying out DYMO Stamps, I knew they were on a roll. I will never have to wait in line for stamps again. That's right, my label printer can now print real postage stamps.

Now I know that being able to go online and subscribe to services that offer printable stamps has been around for a while. But what's newsworthy about their new "DYMO Stamps" is the way that DYMO has made it all work with their latest line of 400 label printers. Together they make an easy-to-use, practical and affordable label printing system that can also print postage stamps. I say affordable because unlike other stamp printing systems, you don't have to pay a monthly subscription fee.

DYMO has made an arrangement with Endicia, a licensed United States Postal Service PC Postage provider. After the registration and account setup, you purchase stamps in increments of $10. As you begin using the stamps, you see your current credit balance. Whenever you print a stamp, the balance is correspondingly decremented. It really couldn't be more simple. There is no monthly service fee and you pay for the exact face value of the stamp with no additional service charge. With it you can print postage for envelopes, small packages, Priority Mail, International Air Mail (1oz), and postcards.

In fact the only "extra" you will be paying for are the rolls of blank stamp labels. Each stamp roll has 200 labels and costs $15.99 per roll. So if you factor that into the equation, then yes you will be paying a bit more for your stamps. But if you also factor in the gas and time wasted, the long lines and aggravation felt as you bask in the glow of the Postal experience as you try to purchase stamps, the convenience alone makes this more than worthwhile.

I also want to mention that installation of the label and stamp printing software is very well thought out. With an active Internet connection, I was able to install the software, register the printer and set up my Endicia stamps account all at the same time. The entire process included a security email with a pass code. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes to set up and it went off without a hitch. I only wish that everything else I've ever had to register went as smoothly as it did with DYMO.

While DYMO Stamps works on any of their faster and higher quality 400 models, DYMO's top of the line LabelWriter Twin Turbo gives you the best experience. That's because the Twin Turbo lets you keep two label rolls loaded at the same time. For me, I keep the right side loaded with the stamp labels and the left side loaded with shipping address labels. The included software keeps track of which side has what label.

I set this up on both a Windows and Macintosh system. Both are almost identical in operation except that the Windows version has an added feature I really like called Address Fixer. It goes online and checks any address you enter for the 9-digit Zip Code as well as any other address refinements it may find. For example, I had it check the address of someone I know who lives in a condominium. I noticed that it added the name of the condominium building to the address. Nice touch. Hopefully DYMO will add this feature to the Mac version soon. But Mac owners won't feel left out because DYMO includes a handy Dashboard Widget. When evoked, it displays an image of the stamp label and the postage to which it is set. All I do is click it and the stamp is instantly printed without even launching the DYMO software.

The LabelWriter Twin Turbo is a slick little label printer but with the addition of DYMO Stamps, DYMO has come up with one of the sharpest little computer label printing solutions I've seen to date. The 400 line of LabelWriters includes models beginning at $109.99. The LabelWriter Twin Turbo goes for 189.99. The DYMO Stamps software is free.