I bought an 18" cake plateau from someone on Craigslist. It's in good shape, not bent or anything. Yesterday I set something on it and leaned a little bit and the metal made a noise and seemed to pop inward a little bit. I popped it back out and it was fine. Do they all do that? Or does it mean that I need to put a block of wood or something under the center when I put a big cake on it? It didn't shift enough to make anything fall and it was more like the center went in than the edges...but if I had a cake on there and it decided to do that, I'd be having a cow.

So many of them have three feet it's scary even when they don't buckle on yah a bit.

But I recommend a nice styrofoam dummy under there--maybe a 10" or 12" one. It won't go anywhere --needs to be the same height--it's so nice & lightweight. You could even hot glue it so you wouldn't have to think about it or carry around a block of wood.