Book Shelf Recommendations?

I recently moved. Lost a few bookshelves. Time had taken its toll on them. Tall ones. Part of the reason for my recent rant against WoTC not having some type of electronic book.

Anyway, as I'm unpacking, I can't really unpack a lot of my books because well, I've run out of shelf space.

Anyone have any good recommendations? Good deals out there?

Ditto on a computer desk. My last one did duty for 6+ years and it's time to lay that sucker to rest. It wasn't even supposed to be moved over here but the movers were so quick that well, it's over here.

I picked up shelves and matching desks from Staples a couple of years ago that are serving my needs well. The desks were large L shaped things which are a little saggy now with warped wood and marred finishes on the desk surface - but they were cheap at under $100 each, so I'm fine with that.

The matching bookshelves were a pain in the ass to put together but have not bowed a bit. Tall non-adjustable shelves that hold lots of games and books. I think I paid $50 a piece for each and I am happy I got them. I still have the Ikea white Billy shelves from years past - but they were looking a little banged up and saggy with all the weight I had put on them.

I recommend visiting a local Staples and see what's available.

If you have a truck or other means of picking up the shelves and getting them home, don't ignore Craigslist. Sometimes you can pick up some great bookshelves there for CHEAP that are solid pine or maple for $20 or less. It's a very hit and miss way of shopping, but the payoff is large.

So called barrister's bookshelves, with glass doors on them, are also a good idea for games and books. If you are anything like me, you have developed a huge amount of stuff that you like to own, are proud of owning and claim to use "every now and then"... but the reality is "every now and then" is once every three or six years. If that.

In the meanwhile, dust and -- depending on where your room is -- sunlight can take their toll. Tinted glass shelves keeps most of the harmful light and nearly all of the dust out. An expensive means of protecting your gaming stuff when resorted to on the near industrial scale that most avid collectors require, but still worth it.

In the same vein, black steel 18" to 24" deep double door locker cabinets can hold a LOT of stuff and lock, too. The steel RARELY sags unless you are really loading stuff up. I have two of these units and have Borged a few of the shelves from one and put them into the other. I use it to keep all my miniatures. Expensive if I was buying them new - but I got them for $60 as piece off of Craigslist.

If your collection is extremely large and you have the space, I would recommend building your own shelves or have them made for you. Installed them along the walls, ceiling to floor, in your gaming room. Usually, a more expensive approach, but shelves like that last, add value to your home, and improve the usefulness and appearance of your collection greatly.

The girlfriend and I will be moving soon and we recently took a trip to the Container Store where we saw these:

Shop Shelving > Our Connections® Shelving System at The Container Store

They are FANTASTIC. We will definitely be investing in some. Incredibly versatile, easy to move, and the sturdiest we could find in the store, including the much more expensive, custom-made units.

Sauder makes cheap shelves that look fine enough and can be had when on sale for nextr to nothing from Meiers, Lowes or Menards. Once every couple of months it pays to pull the books, dust the shelf, and flip it over to prevent long term warping. When I have found them on sale, they've cost no more than $20 for a three shelf unit.

3-Shelf Bookcase

To my mind, if you're not going to invest in something truly substantial then you might as well go the other direction toward the least expensive but decent option. Don't forget, Joe, the weekend of the thirteenth of May in Mt P. is the garage sale weekend, with over five hundred garage sales happening. If I were you, I'd run around to a few of those and look for some good deals on some really good shelving. Much of that type of shopping you should be able to do from the road.

I'm fond of Ikea's Ivar shelving because I can put the shelves exactly as far apart as I want them. They've made for the most efficient paperback book shelving I've ever had. The shelves are real wood, not pressboard, so they hold up well for hardbacks, too.

They're not pretty -- though, at 10 years old, they're less beat-up and ugly looking than the other 10-year-old bookcases I have, which were prettier when they were new but are showing their age much more.

The most durable shelves I've ever seen were still homemade jobs that basically consisted of lengths of 2x4 and cinder blocks. Granted, those will look real out of place in a lot of apartments and houses, but they were perfect for my friend's loft.

I also admirer of Sauder's shelves.
Very attractive and heavy weight so that can use years of years.
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Milk crates, if you can source them, are the way to go. Stupid durable, modular, stack well, and very portable. Perfectly sized for most RPG books.

If you are going the milk crate route I bet you could get these folks to cut you a deal. Otherwise those Ivar shelfs look awesome.

GlassJaw said:

The girlfriend and I will be moving soon and we recently took a trip to the Container Store where we saw these:

Click to expand...

The Container Store makes me all giddy as a school girl in a metrosexual kind of way.

My Experience with Ikea furniture: It affordable, looks good and does the job, but it won't survive a move intact. And whoa to anyone who needs to get a replacement part or return something to the store. Plan on making an entire day of it...