Sauder Beginnings 3-Shelf Bookcase, Highland Oak finish

Attractive, easy to build, solid, well packaged, totally satisfied. For starters, these are not fancy book cases, nor did I expect them to be. I was looking for simple, effective, attractive, well made book cases to augment the storage at my desk at work. These had good reviews, the price seemed fair, and so I ordered 2 and had them shipped to my office. The short form of my review … I love them. 🙂 Now for the rest of the story, if you care to get the details.PACKAGINGThe packaging was VERY robust, with good solid cardboard cases used, but with extra corner reinforcing pads added to the outside of each edge of the shipping case. I’ve not seen these before. It’s a self-adhesive corner pad that runs along the edge of the case and provides extra protection against edge crushing. They seem to work really well and are easy to remove by simply pulling them off. Great idea!PRODUCT QUALITY AND CONDITIONThe parts for the book cases inside were packed identically, which made opening and retrieving the parts easy and predictable. All the parts inside were in good to excellent condition, with only one corner damaged across 2 book cases, and that was not during shipping as the packaging in that area was flawless, so it must have happened during manufacturing or loading into the box. The damage was very minor, and I don’t consider it an issue. The color of the material is very pleasing to the eye and the texture feels very nice to touch. The only oddness in the contents of the boxes was that the first case I opened had exactly the number of fasteners I needed to assemble the book case, while the second had quite a few extras.ASSEMBLYI’ve built quite a few book cases in my lifetime, and these were as easy to assemble as any I’ve built. The instructions were correct and complete if you need them, but I personally found they weren’t necessary as the assembly is rather simple. The only tool I used was my Swiss Army Knife to screw in the Phillips head screws. If you plan to nail on the faux-wood-finish cardboard back panel, you’ll need a hammer, but I preferred these open backed, so no hammering was required. All the parts went together easily without forcing, fit properly and felt solid and square when I was done. I did each one, alone, in my tiny cubicle with no problems.SHELVESSmall metal pegs fit into holes in the side panels, onto which clear rubber tips slide over the end to protect the shelves from damage rubbing against the metal pegs. Nice touch. The shelves fit perfectly first time, no issues.CONSAside from one tiny bit of superficial manufacturing damage to one corner of one book case, I’m 100% satisfied with these book cases. They made quite a nice addition to my cube. One of the bosses swung by at one point and commented that my cube was beginning to look more like an office.

Relatively Sturdy Basic Oak Bookcase — Could Be Stronger/Better But Is Still Pretty Good For the Price I Paid For It. I got this Sauder Beginnings Highland Oak 3-Shelf Bookcase to store my books (obviously!) as well as other stuff, like special china, and while technically, this is a 3 shelf bookcase, because I use the top of the bookcase as well (as can be seen in the first photo) its more like a 4 shelf bookcase for me.There isn’t really much to say about it. It’s purpose, as well as how to use it is pretty obvious & self-explanatory. This is an oak finish bookcase to keep books or other items, like DVDs/Blu-rays, CDs, VHS videos and/or small knick-knacks on shelves. Two of the shelves on this bookcase are adjustable, allowing various-sized items to be put on the shelves where they fit best. Also, assembly of this item is pretty easy, needing only a screwdriver and a hammer — though having a power screwdriver (like I do) makes assembling this bookcase a LOT faster & easier than with a manual screwdriver.Although for the most part, I’m pretty satisfied with this product — especially given the price I paid for it, I still DO have a couple quibbles, hence my rating drop of 1 star to 4 stars.First off, I wish that this bookcase were a bit stronger/more sturdy, because although, if I recall correctly (I’d have to re-check the assembly instructions manual to verify and I don’t have it with me at the moment) the bottom shelf has a weight limit of 40 lbs and the upper shelves have a weight limit of 20-25 lbs, which in my opinion isn’t much, considering that this is a BOOKCASE, and even just a few hardcover books, especially heavy textbooks, could easily amount to, or even EXCEED the 20-25 lb weight limit. In my opinion, by being a bookcase, its shelves should be able to accommodate more weight than just 20-25 lbs,Also, I don’t know if I just got a “bad” one, but the back panel on the bookcase I got, was NOT wide enough to cover all the edges of the sides and top & bottom. Thus, some areas were not reached equally the back panel to be nailed in (to the 4 sides on the back of the bookcase) but since I was in a time crunch and couldn’t wait for a new bookcase to be delivered, I had to just find a way to use it as is. so I tried to pull the back-panel as close as I could so that it reached all 4 edges and then nailed it in as best I could. In some areas, because the back-panel was so close to the edge, the nail went through BOTH while being hammered in, and ended up cracking a piece out of the side(s) or whatever of the bookcase. But like I said, because I was short on time, I just made do — and nailed extra nails in & around the deeper areas to secure the back panel to the 4 sides of the bookcase, and then fixed/filled in the cracks with Gorilla Glue and pushed the bookcase up against the wall to make it more secure, and stacked some modular storage cubes (Foremost Open Cube Storage and Foremost Door Cube Storage) next to it, to hide any cracks that may be visible and it seems to be okay now. But it would have been better if the back panel had been wider and longer so that it evenly covered all 4 sides.But other than that, I’m pretty satisfied with this bookcase overall. I put it in a room adjacent to the kitchen, which used to be the dining room (a formal dining room) but has not been used as such in years, and rather, has become more like a den, with a sofa (actually a sofa with a pull-out bed) and a TV. I actually put this bookcase up against the wall next to an entrance to the kitchen, and given that, I’ve put all my cookbooks on the 1st shelf of the bookcase (as can be seen in the photos) to have it right at my fingertips from the kitchen. I put my special china that I use for holidays (like Thanksgiving & Christmas) and other special occasions, which is in storage cases, on the 2 lowest shelves of the bookcases (they didn’t all fit on the lowest shelf) because those seemed the sturdiest and as if they could bear the most weight. I also put lighter-weight, mostly paperback books on these shelves too — and I like having my books neatly stored on bookshelves instead of spread out all over my bedroom & bed, and elsewhere. In fact if I can figure out where to put it that it would fit, without blocking windows or other things, I’m considering getting ANOTHER one of these bookcases!Because alll in all, this is a pretty good bookcase for the $36 or $38 I paid for it. I wouldn’t have paid much more than that for it — its not worth paying more than $50 or so for. But for the price I did pay, its a decent, basic. good-looking relatively-sturdy (just make sure you put it up against a wall for extra security) oak bookcase, and I’m mostly happy with it.★☆★☆ 4 STARS!!!!

Extremely functional – does its job. Bookshelf is light to move around when empty. Holds a lot of weight for its size. Took about 10 – 15 minutes to put together, only need a hammer and Phillips head screwdriver. Directions easy to follow.

Package arrived on time. Was very easy to assemble and met all our expectations for its specified purpose!!

Simple prefab bookcase. I needed a bookcase of this size and was originally going to build one. After I priced materials the cost was going to be about double. The price point on this worked well for me. The back is flimsy and I may replace it down the road with 1/8” plywood if needed. I wouldn’t load it down with a ton of books but as a general shelf unit ,it works great.