My focus is on safety and not cost in putting together my garage gym. I do not want to injure myself with free weights and have a long recovery period or possibly death which does occur.

Whether one spends $400 for a set of weight plates or waits for months to maybe save $200, is not how I chose to operate at this point in my life. If I need to drive 100 miles to safe $100 with a Craiglist seller I know that I need to add the $150 cost to drive my truck 200 miles round trip to determine if I am really saving money. All the weight equipment resellers provide free shipping and they are getting very good freight rates with their shipping volumes.