I'm a click away from investing in the Stress Free Support System. Is it essential to buy the acrylic plates they sell? Are traditional cardboard circles enough on top of the metal rings? What happens with a 12" or 14" cake that sits on a metal circle? Might it ever begin to sag in the center? I currently use straws for cake support and I feel I need to step up my game a bit. Also considering the Coast system. Thanks in advance for ANY advice.

the really expensive one? so long as you know it's a pia to get peeps to return all the items, not impossible but more headache and if you spend all that money why buy more headache -- you can do the same thing with coast/sps for no additional headache   --  and it's really easy to accidentally toss one or two pieces or even all of them sometimes -- weddings can be a little hectic for sure -- it's much easier to use sps -- it's all inexpensive plastic that can be discarded without issue --

just say no --

coast system -- yes 

Thanks K8memphis.  

I actually work for a hospitality group and all of the cakes I do are "in house", so I *should* be able to get all the parts back unless we have temp staff dishwashers who toss them (a definite possibility) but I figure re-usable stuff is actually a better investment.  I occaisionally have 3 cakes in one day and cakes 3 or 4 days in a row, so I might spend too much time chasing down my stuff!

K8 do you use Coast?

yes i've used it

you can absolutely re-use sps -- do you have an agbay cake cutter? spend money on one of those and get the coast sps and you'll be all set -- you really don't need an expensive cake support system if your cakes are not being delivered -- do you think?

even if you do deliver -- let me know what you decide 

I do deliver about one mile away.  And I assemble on site.  

And K8, I do have an Agbay! Love it.  I realize now that I need lots of all the pieces in all the sizes to make sure I can produce all the cakes, all the time.  So, then, SPS or Coast?  Are they equal, or is one superior?  It seems maybe the biggest difference is the center spike on the SPS?