I started to research my local jewellery stores. I would have liked to see the store price of wedding bands and mostly the store price of platinum wedding bands. What I found was a shock. I went to usually larger state name stores. They all had a tiny collection of super light weight bands. Most did not have more than one platinum band in stock but were using fake plated samples.

• Palladium
• 950 Platinum
• Gram Weight
• 900 Platinum
• Penny Weight-DWT

I started with the wholesale to the general public stores. A couple of them had what is called K platinum. This is platinum blended with amalgamate to scale back the price and worth. The price listed was not cheap but the value is missing. Avoid this low quality platinum. When I asked for 950 platinum they sometimes had only awfully light weight bands. Most were what I might call additional light. I would not buy bands that shallow because the absence of thickness makes the edge rather too thin to be smooth.

I did see a lot of palladium marriage bands that many were attempting to sell as platinum. The sales person did not say they were platinum but they announced it was almost a similar thing and was part of the platinum family. Naturally they forget to say that platinum is virtually double the weight and the spot cost of the metal is three times as much. The price being charged was just a little under the platinum cost. It looks like palladium is being used as a significant profit platinum look a like.

The base line is you want to appreciate what you are purchasing. My online platinum marriage band store is less than half what the local retail stores cost plus gives all of the details. I mostly list the weight and thickness. If you are making an attempt to comparison shop be sure to ask for the gram weight and thickness of any marriage band you have an interest in. Buying rings can be done safely online and you can compare real values if you area careful buyer.