Now THIS is what I want in Stainless Steel. One of Shapeways competitors has released this version of s/s. Described as "High grade stainless steel (316L) that delivers a significant level of detail and strength to your model, making it suitable for boardgame figures, miniatures, keychains, jewelry, bolts."... "Details go from 0.3 mm and wall thickness goes from 1.0 mm", and "...even did a test on rust: he put a high detailed stainless steel design in a bath with salt and no marks of rust are visible."
Printing consists of "...binding ultra fine grains of stainless steel powder in a precision inkt jet printer. The model is carefully taken out, depowdered and sintered in an oven at around 1300 degrees."
Pricing (keep in mind this site always charges more than Shapeways)
•A model of 10 x 10 x 10 mm will cost you 18,2€ (US$23.76)
•A ring of 23 x 23 x 5 mm will cost you 35,31€ (US$46.10)
•The Aislin figure below of 15 x 15 x 35 mm will cost you 89,7€ (US$117.11)
So, not that much more than charged now for s/s here, and certainly not 8 times as much.
One image of this material below and two more following.