Today My Bookcase Collapsed Under the Weight of My RPGs

[Turjan]

Hey! Nature Aquarium World! Who put that out again?

That was the last publication for "Blue Planet" .

 

[Elf Witch]

I have a tight budget and can not afford more than the cheap walmart shelves. What I have done to make them last is to change out the plastic holders for metal and to flip the shelves when they are sagging.

I had one shelf give out and the hole for the bracket got to big so I used a brace to hold the shelf in place and it has been fine for five years.

My gaming books are in my living room so I like that the shelves look pretty nice. In my office which is an unused bedroom I have blocks and wood for shelves for my other books. They may not look great but they are cheap and sturdy. To make them look a little better I spray painted the blocks black and painted the wood black it helps a litttle.

 

[Yami no Hon]

I suggest IKEA. I picked up a discount shelf, fully assembled, for less than $50. Even the new ones are reasonably priced... Office supply stores can often have decent prices as well...

I'll second the vote for IKEA. I'm in possession of a couple of bookcases (their Billy model, which are basically white boxes with shelves in) that are 19 years old. They have survived five moves, one of which was transatlantic, and despite my best attempts to overload them, I have yet to have a single sagging shelf. Also, they are really easy to assemble.

 

[megamania]

For real. I was just sitting there, and then suddenly, CRUNCHCRUMBLEBLAM!

It was one of those cheap Wal-Mart particleboard bookcases, but had held up for over six months, so I thought it was good. It was completely full – it held my entire RPG collection, and only my RPG collection. I had tried to put most of my big hardbacks on the bottom and the lighter boxed sets near the top (it was a 6' bookcase), but I guess that only postponed the inevitable. The little fasteners holding it together were just plain ripped out of the boards.

Most of my books seem to be in pretty good condition. My Planescape boxed sets were undamaged, but my Dark Sun 1st edition boxed set was torn, as was my Deluxe Traveller Boxed set (with all the little black books). *cry*

I'm trying to process this. I'm uncertain whether to take this as a Sign that the cheap cardboard construction that suffices for mainstream America simply collapses under the passion I have for RPGs, or whether my passion has become an obsession that my life is collapsing under.

Either way, let my life serve as a warning to you all!

Ragnar

[crossposted to RPG.net]

I use the same shelves and I had done was when the shelves were beginning to sag I screwed them in and used wooden dals that were also screwed in to reinforce them. There was literally 100's of pounds of books on mine. I filled my shelf with books alone and a second case had my boxed sets and 1s / 2nd ed stuff.

 

[rkanodia]

When Talinthas and I were roommates, one day he asked for help putting together a bookshelf. We put it together without much trouble, but I told him that he should be careful about loading it up too much, because the pegs holding the boards in place were just some kind of cheap plasticky thing, not very thick at all.

"Okay," Tal said, and I went back to my room.

Ten minutes, I hear, "KA-THUMP THUMP," and I go over there, and the whole thing has crumbled. He had filled every single shelf all the way up with hardcover D&D books. If only ENworld had a 'facepalm' emote

 

[Asmor]

you could always go the other poor man route like i did for my gaming library. i've used this method for years b/c it's easy to transport or move when you change houses or apartments. i've had friends and family members give me these things all the time over the years. put some planking in between them and they won't bend or break.

Milk crates sound like a great idea, so I checked online to see if there's somewhere to buy them.

Turns out, they're actually fairly expensive... If you get them in bulk, you can get them for around $15 a piece. So cheap shelving it isn't.

What a shame...

 

[Tetsubo]

Milk crates sound like a great idea, so I checked online to see if there's somewhere to buy them.

Turns out, they're actually fairly expensive... If you get them in bulk, you can get them for around $15 a piece. So cheap shelving it isn't.

What a shame...

I have to ask, who *buys* milk crates? I've had several over the years and not one was bought...

I've seen milk crate-like containers at Target and Walmart. They may not be as robust but I'm sure they aren't expensive.

 

[Asmor]

I have to ask, who *buys* milk crates? I've had several over the years and not one was bought...

I've seen milk crate-like containers at Target and Walmart. They may not be as robust but I'm sure they aren't expensive.

From what I've read online, the ones you can buy at megamarts are crap. Real milk crates use some sort of high-density plastic (which, plastic being made from oil, is why they're so expensive).

As for acquiring them through other means... I don't really want to say anything, because I don't want to sound like I'm implying anything, but I'll just say that's not an option for me personally.

 

[Tetsubo]

From what I've read online, the ones you can buy at megamarts are crap. Real milk crates use some sort of high-density plastic (which, plastic being made from oil, is why they're so expensive).

As for acquiring them through other means... I don't really want to say anything, because I don't want to sound like I'm implying anything, but I'll just say that's not an option for me personally.

"Acquiring by other means" was part of my wicked youth. I am a stable and dull old man now... though I do still have a few of those milk crates in the shed...

You might want to look at industrial types of plastic containers. I work in a factory and we must have a 100 different types kicking around. They aren't as tough as a milk crate but they could easily handle storing books and transporting them.