letterpress at home?

i love letterpress. the way the ink has that beautiful texture that can't be recreated by a printer. and how you can feel the impression of the type when you run your fingers over the paper. it is truly a handmade process - so much care and time has gone into producing even a single print.

i found this today. it seems that someone has taken the same idea behind the gocco and yudu printers, but created something instead for letterpress. make it small, compact, and something every home crafter can get their hands on. i think it will be great for maybe creating notecards for yourself or as a gift, but will the handmade market flood with 'letterpressed' items as a result of this? it looks to me that you are limited to the pre-packaged designs that you purchase from lifestylecraft. i would think that there would be a great market for designers to send in their own designs and pay to have plates made specifically for use with this machine.

i have dreamed of owning my own tabletop letterpress for some time now. i have not the means nor the time to do anything with one at this point in my life... but i keep searching in hopes of finding something both affordable and close to home. and i don't know that this is the way, either. i'm not really sure HOW i feel about this product yet... i was super-excited about products like the gocco/yudu, but this is different. this is letterpress we're talking about...

how do you feel about it?