@goldnectar@narfcake “Engineered wood” can be particle board, MDF, or any of a number of other “we took sawdust and/or chips, processed the hell out of them, added a binder, and extruded that shit into sheets” atrocities. I had to do some digging; this looks like regular particle board, or, as those who live in flood-prone areas will attest, water-soluble furniture. It gets wet, it turns to sludge.
@goldnectar@werehatrack
Particle board is definitely the worse of the two in all aspects except for weight, but not strength for weight MDF has more carrying capacity pound for pound.
Particle board has all of the same downsides, but it’s weaker to impacts, shear, has less loading capacity, less fastener retention, and is so sensitive to moisture it can swell from just humidity.
Particle board is made out actual pieces of wood, and MDF is basically saw dust, but the compression process removes the majority of the voids and replaces them with resin, where as particle board is just wood glued together with resin with a bunch of air in it.
@10tongoldfish@goldnectar@phendrick@soxnabox When I was doing the renovation on my now-ex’s condo, I had to replace all the closet shelving that the builder had installed. It was particle board, and had sagged all the way to the clothes hanger bar in two places. The material has improved since that place was built (around 1980), but it’s still not wood. (We will not speak of the particle-board vanities in the carpeted bathrooms.)
@mcanavino I dunno, but I’m going to. This one from Ikea is 16 inches taller, similar in width and depth, has more shelves, and goes for $80 online or $65 in the store.
@robson We’re technically cheaper if you factor in the $29-$169* shipping on those – unless you want to trek to your local IKEA (if you have one nearby) and lug it home in your car
@robson@troy that $29 shipping is $169 for me as a person who lives far enough away from an IKEA to not be able to smell the meatballs. I may have to rescind my earlier snarky comment.
@djslack@troy Yeah that is a ridiculous amount, I live close enough to Ikea to make the slog there, though not with too much enthusiasm. I like the meatballs, but not that much!
I see the buying things at liquidation prices strategy is now applying to entire companies besides Hammacher Schlemmer. I for one welcome our new corporate overlords.
And now we know why our monthly charges for “FREE shipping” increased; at 60 lbs. per unit these will eat up a good chunk of the accumulated fees the meh community has contributed.
@MrGoodGuy@phendrick@troy Shipping costs have gone up so much in the past five years that comparisons to “back then” are almost pointless. And they’re about to take another dramatic hike because of the Diesel situation.
@MrGoodGuy@troy I think that honor goes to the pallet of prince xizor action figures or the old hairdresser chair that someone was shipped for a fuko bag back in the ancient days of this site. This might be one of the most expensive items to ship for them that they sell to everyone however.
@MrGoodGuy@phendrick@troy meh is not actually warehousing furniture are they? Honestly, when i looked at the Bush site, my first thought was “great, another drop ship ‘store’”. Not to pre-judge, but most of those are great at making websites and taking money, not so great at actually delivering stuff. And furniture, even from reputable sites, has a better than average chance of significant damage during shipping.
@MrGoodGuy@phendrick@troy That’s actually very good to know, thanks! I don’t have much business experience, but i do have a lot of customer experience. And from that viewpoint, i hope you’ve scaled up Customer Service commensurate with the mass of the products.
@MrGoodGuy@troy
Maybe the same bike, but mine was the Totem folding ebike from March, 2022. Listed as “44 lbs including the battery” but probably a lot more for the shipping weight. Also was in a pretty sizable box, similar to what a good-sized current HDTV would come in.
OK, I admit I don’t have all the furniture savvy that I might. But I count five shelves, then the top. I would also have counted that as a shelf. In fact, it will probably hold as much dust as the lower ones, if not more.
If I were to purchase one, by golly I’d also put stuff on that top, sixth shelf, though probably not any books. (Eight-foot ceilings in most of my house, so definitely room.)
Don’t need any bookshelves ATM, so won’t be ordering though.
I have purchased Bush furniture over the years, in spite of preferring solid wood. I didn’t have much to spend on furniture at the time, so it was the best I could do. I still have a desk and entertainment unit. In spite of it still functioning, I would like the replace the latter, but haven’t found anything I like that is real wood. My computer desk is a gazillion years old and in spite of some of the surfaces literally being held together with packing tape, structurally it’s still sound. I want to replace that too, but it’s a challenge due to size limitations and the desire for solid wood.
I am with you on the solid wood front. Any piece of furniture I have (or rather had at this point) that isn’t solid wood suffered too much in the long run. Kid damage, water damage, age damage, gouged and scraped from moving damage (which is much harder to repair well when it isn’t solid wood). Sorry meh.
Of course my approach in life has been to do without until I can afford something decent (so I could put that money I didn’t spend towards what I wanted) when it comes to furniture or use curb alerts until I can afford something decent. When first starting out my bed was on the floor, my dresser was card board boxes turned on their sides to be shelfs, I had an ugly but really comfortable curb alert rocker (that someone actually bought from me when I finally had saved enough for what I wanted), and the apartment came with three bar stools for the eating counter top. That was it on the furniture front initially.
@heartny Sometimes you can find plywood construction with wood veneer on top. We have a coffee table like that and it’s way cheaper than solid wood but feels way more solidly constructed than particle board.
Goes to show how expensive things have become. This would have easily been $99 or less not very long ago. And looking at the prices on the Bush site makes me both laugh and shake my head. Yeah, good luck selling a lot of furniture at those prices. Time will tell if this was a wise business decision.
Yesterday I told my wife we needed another bookcase. It needs legs because it’ll be over a cold air return vent. I’m not gonna FOMO myself into this one. But if anyone else wants to take the chance, I’d be interested in their opinion.
@Sorry_Nothing Plywood may swell up the same too if it wasn’t sealed. That was the true culprit of the MDF swelling up; the laminate used was porous.
(The reason why plywood isn’t used as often is because it’s only considered 2-dimensionally stable, where as particle board and MDF is considered 3-dimensionally stable.)
@narfcake I had a plywood fish tank, plywood will tolerate splashes and ocasional moisture, just not constant exposure. Maybe stronger in 2D, but that bastard held a 200 gallon tank for 25 years!
I’d buy it if it wasn’t 100 smacks OR if it was ply.
I have something like 8 of the Better Homes and Gardens bookshelves from Walmart. (and have bought additional ones for kids.) For particle board (or some kind of vinyl-wrapped emulsion) they’re not bad. And they’re usually on sale for around $100.
Bought as many Billys over the years (been interesting to see how they’ve evolved). They are better (mostly because the sides/back are one piece top to bottom). But even at about an hour away, shipping from Ikea is a no-go. So it comes down to what fits better in the space and is it worth the drive.
These also look like one piece, so i’d give them a try if i needed one. Except i like to know i can get matching ones (at a similar price) whenever i need to add shelf space.
Today’s deal just brings to my attention that furniture has gotten REALLY expensive. And all of the cheap furniture outlets I used to have by me are gone.
@estepae What operating system, browser & browser version are you using? The lead image is a webp file and I haven’t seen any reports of issues until now.
/showme room of house where all the walls have Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcases. The only parts of the walls that do not have bookcases are windows. Cats push books off shelves in order to sit on shelves.
/showme Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase being used by cats as a boat. Each shelf cavity has a cat with an oar. Cat in front is wearing captain hat.
/showme Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase being used by cats as a boat. The bookcase is horizontal. The back of the bookcase is in the water. Each shelf cavity has a cat with an oar. Cat in front is wearing captain hat.
Howly carp, I just noticed that the Bush Home site is now in the Stores-dot-com group over in the lower left of the page. I guess we’ll see a piece of furniture as a meh item once in a while. I went through the descriptionf o several, and they all said “engineered wood” somewhere. Such is the state of what the US consumer is encouraged (and sometimes, functionally permitted) to buy now.
Specs
Product: Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase
Model: SAB132ABR-03, SAB132AW-03, SAB132CG-03, SAB132DG-03, SAB132G2W-03, SAB132RCP-03, SAB132VB-03
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$186.01 at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Friday, Oct 2 - Monday, Oct 5
When is this a good deal?
Doesn’t have a Skyrim mod. 0/10
@Coldwyn It’s got clean faces, er, lines.
That’s a normal Ikea.
@goldnectar Ikea mostly uses particle board. If I’m reading them right, this is MDF. It’s hard to say which is worse.
@goldnectar @werehatrack This aspect makes me wonder.
So this might be hollow-core, like an interior door? That’s even less reassuring than coarse particle board.
@goldnectar @narfcake “Engineered wood” can be particle board, MDF, or any of a number of other “we took sawdust and/or chips, processed the hell out of them, added a binder, and extruded that shit into sheets” atrocities. I had to do some digging; this looks like regular particle board, or, as those who live in flood-prone areas will attest, water-soluble furniture. It gets wet, it turns to sludge.
@goldnectar @werehatrack
Particle board is definitely the worse of the two in all aspects except for weight, but not strength for weight MDF has more carrying capacity pound for pound.
Particle board has all of the same downsides, but it’s weaker to impacts, shear, has less loading capacity, less fastener retention, and is so sensitive to moisture it can swell from just humidity.
Particle board is made out actual pieces of wood, and MDF is basically saw dust, but the compression process removes the majority of the voids and replaces them with resin, where as particle board is just wood glued together with resin with a bunch of air in it.
MDF is basically just particle board +
@10tongoldfish @goldnectar @werehatrack
How much weight can a bookshelf take if a bookshelf could take weight?
@10tongoldfish @goldnectar @soxnabox @werehatrack
The more you wait, the less the weight (it will take).
Different for a human, IME.
Either way, expect sagging.
@10tongoldfish @goldnectar @phendrick @soxnabox When I was doing the renovation on my now-ex’s condo, I had to replace all the closet shelving that the builder had installed. It was particle board, and had sagged all the way to the clothes hanger bar in two places. The material has improved since that place was built (around 1980), but it’s still not wood. (We will not speak of the particle-board vanities in the carpeted bathrooms.)
@soxnabox
One standard woodchuck per two linear feet.
Todays offering must be a new record for the number of product images!! I count 46 separate pics!! (not counting the last AI image). Whoa!
@MrGoodGuy Would you believe me if I pared that down from 64?
@troy I guess we need to get you a bigger axe. Or maybe an electric chainsaw. (Gasoline-powered ones aren’t allowed indoors.)
@MrGoodGuy I was going to ask if more pictures = crappier product!
I think I’m done.
Good luck, meh.
@goldnectar Im waiting out the holiday season and i might join you.
@goldnectar Done posting in this thread? That’s the third one, almost in a row.
“The bookcase is tested to meet ANSI/SOHO standards for safety and performance”
So, did it pass?
@mcanavino I dunno, but I’m going to. This one from Ikea is 16 inches taller, similar in width and depth, has more shelves, and goes for $80 online or $65 in the store.
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/billy-bookcase-white-20522046/
(I have two flat packs sitting here to be assembled.)
@mcanavino @werehatrack Now go to the bush home site and see the other prices. omgwtfbbq!!!
Interesting new vertical from mediocre. At least they didn’t ask us to Kickstart it.
I know looks/style is subjective, but this is ugly AF…
@robson show us your preferred style of bookcase
@troy Well if we’re talking cheap bookcases like these, the Ikea Billy bookcase for one…
Looks like even these now come in some meh finishes, they used to have a natural Birch veneer one that looked pretty nice for a cheap bookcase.
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/billy-bookcase-brown-walnut-effect-50508652/#content
Remember, you called me out on this!
@robson We’re technically cheaper if you factor in the $29-$169* shipping on those – unless you want to trek to your local IKEA (if you have one nearby) and lug it home in your car
@robson @troy And, currently, save rather a lot in the process while getting a taller bookcase.
@robson @troy that $29 shipping is $169 for me as a person who lives far enough away from an IKEA to not be able to smell the meatballs. I may have to rescind my earlier snarky comment.
@djslack wow, $169? That’s ludicrous! Thanks for catching that… I guess the $29 is only for those local, my IKEA is just 20min away.
@djslack @troy Yeah that is a ridiculous amount, I live close enough to Ikea to make the slog there, though not with too much enthusiasm. I like the meatballs, but not that much!
@djslack @robson @troy I have an Ikea within bike distance, but I would not want to try to carry their Billy shelving unit home on my rack.
“Can it make a margarita: What are books if not margaritas for the mind?!?”
I think we have different concepts of what margaritas are.
I see the buying things at liquidation prices strategy is now applying to entire companies besides Hammacher Schlemmer. I for one welcome our new corporate overlords.
It’s a decent enough looking shelf, but a hundo for particle board? On Meh?
@djslack A decent chunk of that price is likely making up for the undershoot vs actual cost for the outbound shipping.
@werehatrack fair point. This thing probably gets every shipping surcharge.
And now we know why our monthly charges for “FREE shipping” increased; at 60 lbs. per unit these will eat up a good chunk of the accumulated fees the meh community has contributed.
@MrGoodGuy Yeah, I believe this is the most costly item to ship we’ve ever sold on meh
@MrGoodGuy @troy More than those electric bicycles from a few years back? (Of course, they sold for a higher amount, by far.)
@MrGoodGuy @phendrick These from 2020?
Those were shipped directly from the vendor so I’m not sure what those cost
@MrGoodGuy @phendrick @troy Shipping costs have gone up so much in the past five years that comparisons to “back then” are almost pointless. And they’re about to take another dramatic hike because of the Diesel situation.
@MrGoodGuy @troy I think that honor goes to the pallet of prince xizor action figures or the old hairdresser chair that someone was shipped for a fuko bag back in the ancient days of this site. This might be one of the most expensive items to ship for them that they sell to everyone however.
@troy just curious if that includes the 20 individual boxes my lovesac was shipped in?
@MrGoodGuy @phendrick @troy Man, those were excellent e-bikes. Still have 2 of them in the RV.
@MrGoodGuy @phendrick @troy meh is not actually warehousing furniture are they? Honestly, when i looked at the Bush site, my first thought was “great, another drop ship ‘store’”. Not to pre-judge, but most of those are great at making websites and taking money, not so great at actually delivering stuff. And furniture, even from reputable sites, has a better than average chance of significant damage during shipping.
@MrGoodGuy @phendrick @walarney Yep, we are warehousing everything!
@MrGoodGuy @phendrick @troy That’s actually very good to know, thanks! I don’t have much business experience, but i do have a lot of customer experience. And from that viewpoint, i hope you’ve scaled up Customer Service commensurate with the mass of the products.
@MrGoodGuy @troy
Maybe the same bike, but mine was the Totem folding ebike from March, 2022. Listed as “44 lbs including the battery” but probably a lot more for the shipping weight. Also was in a pretty sizable box, similar to what a good-sized current HDTV would come in.
OK, I admit I don’t have all the furniture savvy that I might. But I count five shelves, then the top. I would also have counted that as a shelf. In fact, it will probably hold as much dust as the lower ones, if not more.
If I were to purchase one, by golly I’d also put stuff on that top, sixth shelf, though probably not any books. (Eight-foot ceilings in most of my house, so definitely room.)
Don’t need any bookshelves ATM, so won’t be ordering though.
I have purchased Bush furniture over the years, in spite of preferring solid wood. I didn’t have much to spend on furniture at the time, so it was the best I could do. I still have a desk and entertainment unit. In spite of it still functioning, I would like the replace the latter, but haven’t found anything I like that is real wood. My computer desk is a gazillion years old and in spite of some of the surfaces literally being held together with packing tape, structurally it’s still sound. I want to replace that too, but it’s a challenge due to size limitations and the desire for solid wood.
@heartny
I am with you on the solid wood front. Any piece of furniture I have (or rather had at this point) that isn’t solid wood suffered too much in the long run. Kid damage, water damage, age damage, gouged and scraped from moving damage (which is much harder to repair well when it isn’t solid wood). Sorry meh.
Of course my approach in life has been to do without until I can afford something decent (so I could put that money I didn’t spend towards what I wanted) when it comes to furniture or use curb alerts until I can afford something decent. When first starting out my bed was on the floor, my dresser was card board boxes turned on their sides to be shelfs, I had an ugly but really comfortable curb alert rocker (that someone actually bought from me when I finally had saved enough for what I wanted), and the apartment came with three bar stools for the eating counter top. That was it on the furniture front initially.
@heartny Sometimes you can find plywood construction with wood veneer on top. We have a coffee table like that and it’s way cheaper than solid wood but feels way more solidly constructed than particle board.
Goes to show how expensive things have become. This would have easily been $99 or less not very long ago. And looking at the prices on the Bush site makes me both laugh and shake my head. Yeah, good luck selling a lot of furniture at those prices. Time will tell if this was a wise business decision.
Teddy Rosevelt on a staircase…? Is this an Arsenic and Old Lace reference??
Yesterday I told my wife we needed another bookcase. It needs legs because it’ll be over a cold air return vent. I’m not gonna FOMO myself into this one. But if anyone else wants to take the chance, I’d be interested in their opinion.
If it was plywood maybe, homie don’t do particle board.
I set my drink down on my MDF desk once and it fluffed up.
@Sorry_Nothing Plywood may swell up the same too if it wasn’t sealed. That was the true culprit of the MDF swelling up; the laminate used was porous.
(The reason why plywood isn’t used as often is because it’s only considered 2-dimensionally stable, where as particle board and MDF is considered 3-dimensionally stable.)
@narfcake I had a plywood fish tank, plywood will tolerate splashes and ocasional moisture, just not constant exposure. Maybe stronger in 2D, but that bastard held a 200 gallon tank for 25 years!
I’d buy it if it wasn’t 100 smacks OR if it was ply.
I thought these were supposed to come in colors. [/pithy commentary]
I have something like 8 of the Better Homes and Gardens bookshelves from Walmart. (and have bought additional ones for kids.) For particle board (or some kind of vinyl-wrapped emulsion) they’re not bad. And they’re usually on sale for around $100.
Bought as many Billys over the years (been interesting to see how they’ve evolved). They are better (mostly because the sides/back are one piece top to bottom). But even at about an hour away, shipping from Ikea is a no-go. So it comes down to what fits better in the space and is it worth the drive.
These also look like one piece, so i’d give them a try if i needed one. Except i like to know i can get matching ones (at a similar price) whenever i need to add shelf space.
Today’s deal just brings to my attention that furniture has gotten REALLY expensive. And all of the cheap furniture outlets I used to have by me are gone.
Does what ever you put on there become invisible too?
1:
@estepae What operating system, browser & browser version are you using? The lead image is a webp file and I haven’t seen any reports of issues until now.
Hmmm …
/showme room of house where all the walls have Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcases. The only parts of the walls that do not have bookcases are windows. Cats push books off shelves in order to sit on shelves.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “room of house where all the walls have Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcases. The only parts o…”
@mediocrebot I like this.
Hmmm …
/showme Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase being used by cats as a boat. Each shelf cavity has a cat with an oar. Cat in front is wearing captain hat.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase being used by cats as a boat. Each shelf cavity has a cat…”
@mediocrebot Hrmmmm.
/showme Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase being used by cats as a boat. The bookcase is horizontal. The back of the bookcase is in the water. Each shelf cavity has a cat with an oar. Cat in front is wearing captain hat.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Bush Home Salinas Tall 5 Shelf Bookcase being used by cats as a boat. The bookcase is horizontal…”
@mediocrebot That’s what I wanted.
I hate to tell you guys, but the British band is definitely NOT the first thing that comes to my mind when someone refers to “Bush home.”
/showme ikea employee using billy bookcase as a bong
Something went terribly wrong. Please try again.
/showme book lover using billy bookcase bong
@zippyus Here’s the image you requested for “book lover using billy bookcase bong”
/showme borges’ library cinematic inception style as Ikea billy bookcases
@zippyus Here’s the image you requested for “borges library cinematic inception style as Ikea billy bookcases”
Howly carp, I just noticed that the Bush Home site is now in the Stores-dot-com group over in the lower left of the page. I guess we’ll see a piece of furniture as a meh item once in a while. I went through the descriptionf o several, and they all said “engineered wood” somewhere. Such is the state of what the US consumer is encouraged (and sometimes, functionally permitted) to buy now.