Why Are Change Plates So Expensive?

Intro: The Large Cost of Small Gains

Here at Fringe Sport, we love lifting.
In fact, one of our mottos is “Joy in the Gym” — or as I usually sign off my emails:

Lift Heavy, Lift Happy.

But in order to lift heavy — and lift smart — you need plates.

Now, if you’ve shopped around, you’ve probably noticed something odd:
Change plates — those little plates that help you make tiny jumps in weight — often cost way more per pound than standard 45s or 25s.

So what gives?
Why are small plates so expensive?

Let’s dig into what change plates are, why they matter, and the three big reasons they cost more than you might expect.

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What Are Change Plates?

When you’re lifting in the U.S., the most common plates are:

• 10 lb

• 25 lb

• 35 lb

• 45 lb

And sometimes, you’ll see 15s, 55s, or even 100 lb plates.

Anything smaller than 10 pounds is usually called a change plate.
That includes:

• 5 lb

• 2.5 lb

• 1.25 lb

• 1 lb

• 0.75 lb

• 0.5 lb

• 0.25 lb

Change plates let you make smaller jumps in weight so you can hit your goals — or keep progressing even when big jumps (like 20 lbs total) are too much.

They’re essential for fine-tuning progress, especially in strength programs where adding 5 pounds to your total lift might be the difference between hitting your PR or missing it.

But here’s the kicker: per pound, change plates can be 3–4x as expensive as big plates.

Why?

It all comes down to precision, tooling, and shipping.

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1️⃣ Precision Is Harder at Small Sizes

When you manufacture any weight plate, there’s a tolerance range — how close the actual weight can be to the number on the plate.

Let’s say you’re making a 45 lb plate with a 1% tolerance.
That means it can weigh anywhere between 44.55 and 45.45 lbs and still be acceptable.

That’s almost a half-pound of wiggle room!

Now, imagine you’re making a 0.5 lb plate.
If you were off by half a pound, that’s a 100% error.

So, with small plates, the precision required skyrockets.
They need to be cast and calibrated with extreme accuracy, which means:

• Tighter quality control

• More factory rejects

• More time and cost per piece

Basically, small weights require big precision, and that precision isn’t cheap.

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2️⃣ Tooling Costs Don’t Scale Down

Every plate design — whether it’s a 45 or a 0.5 — requires tooling: the molds and equipment used to produce it.

When we make 45 lb bumper plates at Fringe Sport, we sell tens of thousands of them every year.
That means we can spread the cost of the tooling (the mold) over a massive production run.

For example, if a mold costs $10,000 to make and we produce 10,000 plates, that’s just $1 per plate for tooling costs.

But change plates?
They sell in much smaller quantities.
So even if the mold costs the same $10,000, we might only make a few hundred or a few thousand of them.

That means we’re spreading the tooling cost over a much smaller run — which makes each individual plate more expensive to produce.

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3️⃣ Shipping Costs Are Brutal for Lightweight Products

At Fringe Sport, we often offer free shipping on our products.

But “free” shipping isn’t free — it’s baked into the product price.

And here’s how shipping actually works with carriers like UPS and FedEx:
There’s a minimum cost to ship any package, no matter how light it is.

That means sending a 1 lb box (like two 0.5 lb plates) might cost us $10–$14, just like sending a 10 lb pair of 5s.

So on a per-pound basis, change plates are way more expensive to ship than larger plates.

For instance:

• Shipping 1 lb of change plates → $10 per lb

• Shipping 45 lb plate pair → maybe $0.30 per lb

Shipping carriers don’t care that your plates are tiny — they charge the same minimum rate.

So if you’re wondering why your 0.25 lb fractional plates cost $40 instead of $10, now you know: most of that is precision and shipping.

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The Short Version: Big Costs for Small Plates

Let’s recap:

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Coming Soon: The Savage Change Plates

Here at Fringe Sport, we’re not content to just explain the problem — we want to solve it.

That’s why we’re launching the new Savage Change Plates — precision-engineered, vibrant, and built to last a lifetime of micro-loading.

Stay tuned — these are dropping soon.

And when they do, you’ll be able to train smarter, hit smaller PRs more often, and add big weight — one little plate at a time.

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Conclusion: Small Plates, Big Impact

Change plates might look small, but they make a massive difference in your training.

They’re the secret to steady gains, cleaner technique, and smarter lifting.
And while they’re more expensive per pound, they’re one of the best investments you can make in your long-term strength.

👉 Check out our Fringe Sport Change Plates (and keep an eye out for the new Savage line).

Lift Heavy. Lift Happy. — PK