While these cost a lot compared to iron plates, they cost less than any other manufacturer's rubber coated change plate and are better. I bought these because my first weightlifting bar's selves are downright ugly after taking the abuse of loose fitting iron plates. No functional loss, and this point isn't to look good, but it is a bonus - especially now that I'm upgrading to an Elieko bar. But these do have three functional advantages over iron change plates: they make WAY less noise when the bar is dropped, they fit really well so they don't move around much if you put them outside the collar (yes, I'm one of the two weightlifters who uses collars), and they are VERY accurate in weight. Vulcan claims .5% potential variation. That's 0.0125 for a 2.5lbs plate and 0.025 for a 5lbs plate. All my plates came out to be 0.01lbs light. Let me elaborate on this weight issue. If you're like me, you've spent a lot of money on bumpers that claim to be within grams of stated weight. I weigh all my plates. All my bumpers are all within 10 grams - regardless of stated weight. Yet I was using iron change plates. I weighted them - my 2.5s were 2.98 and 2.89lbs. My 5s were 5.25 and 5.2lbs. The up-side, I'm stronger than I thought, The down-side is obvious. With these plates, I know exactly what's on the bar. I like that.