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My bookcase fell apart.

My basement flooded one time.

Was away at college when it happen, pretty much lost everything gaming wise. I gave up on keeping physical games and collecting after that lol. All those years in high school going to garage sales or browsing craigslist and all my child hood games gone.
 
My original 25+ inch CRT from childhood fell on my Sega Genesis and cracked it. It still worked and managed to pump out 16-bit Hi-Definition Graphics though.

I ended up trading it in and replacing it with a non-cracked Genesis console though.
 
A cardboard box would have been more suffice.
PA060074.jpg
 
_Ryo_ said:
I had all my retro consoles on it for months.
This morning when lying down I hear a loud crash and jump, I turn my head to see what it was and find out the bookcase fell halfway apart, leaning like deformed lego, I see half my consoles in mid slide, some hanging my attached cords, and about to crash to the floor where my TV, PS1, PS2, GBA, GBA games, PSP, PSP games, Star Wars puzzle, comics, and all my game controllers have already crashed, fallen and scattered all over the floor.

I rush up and leap towards the bookcase and prevent my Saturn, Dreamcast, and OG XBOX from joining them.

Damages? Several cracks and scratches on my psp screen, the analog stick on one of my Dreamcast controllers broke off, after just having replaced the controller for the same thing not long ago. My TV has a kind of deep scratch, and I just tested my PS2, it appears to be working fine.

Anyone else have this type of random misfortune?

P.S. yes, it was a crappy Wal-Mart bookcase but its been fine for months.
Click to expand...

Yup. Three years ago my gaming box bookshelf [not like basement guy, like games I recently purchased and play] came crashing down shortly after I moved into a new apartment [the bookshelf was built in]. A couple of the few collector edition boxes I own took the brunt of the damage.

Oh well!
 
The problem was probably perching the TV on top of it. Those cheap bookshelves aren't really built for weight to be placed on top of them.
 
entremet said:
The heft of the books actually helps create a stable bookshelf. Think bridge physics.

I've had cheap IKEA bookshelves and the sparse shelves tend to be more unstable.
Click to expand...
Tell that to my cheap target book case I had in my early 20s that started sagging and eventually broke under the weight of the books on a shelf.
 
If you can, I would strongly suggest building the next bookcase yourself. You can just make something out of pine that would be quite a bit sturdier if you honeycomb it like this:

Code: 
___________________
|        |        |
-------------------
|     |     |     |
-------------------
|        |        |
-------------------

I have a large family of book hoarders so the regular pressed wood shelves don't quite cut it.
 
wheapon said:
If you can, I would strongly suggest building the next bookcase yourself. You can just make something out of pine that would be quite a bit sturdier if you honeycomb it like this:

Code: 
___________________
|        |        |
-------------------
|     |     |     |
-------------------
|        |        |
-------------------

I have a large family of book hoarders so the regular pressed wood shelves don't quite cut it.
Click to expand...

Basically what I had to do with all my books. I didn't offset things like your picture, but I did use some seriously thick plywood and screwed down each shelf with about six heavy duty metal brackets and put a support down the middle. Those shelves are sturdy as hell and the bookcase will last for decades. All in all, a much better investment than any store-bought item. Plus everyone will be impressed that you built your own furniture.

Serious bummer for you though. At least the carnage wasn't as bad as it could have been I guess.
 
A similar thing happened to me but thankfully it wasn't so bad, a few game cases got a few dents but nothing valuable was lost. Sorry OP :(
 
Guys, I didnt have a CRT on the bookcase. It was a small, light LCD TV. My CRT is on the dresser and it is super old, missing all of its buttons and the audio component port is broken so in order for me to have sound I would have to hook up the AV Box, all the consoles to that, and then speakers to that.
 
I haven't had a whole bookcase come crashing down like that fortunately, but my previous cart of Majora's Mask fell off the shelf it was on right onto a stone-tiled floor. The plastic of the back part smashed into pieces.

Bought a new one on eBay and sold the old one on a local auction site, and got almost as much for it as I had spent on the one from eBay since local prices are ridiculous.
 
entremet said:
The heft of the books actually helps create a stable bookshelf. Think bridge physics.

I've had cheap IKEA bookshelves and the sparse shelves tend to be more unstable.
Click to expand...

Yup, it's why I keep my Laserdisc collection on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. Couple hundred pounds holding that thing down.
 
I've had my huge CRT TV sitting on a fairly wobbly desk/shelf thing for years. I'm surprised that it hasn't given in under the weight yet, but I still don't do anything about it. RIP my Saturn and XBox if it ever does fall.
 
If you have an Ikea in your area you might consider getting some Kallax shelves. Here they are in white, but they also come in black and dark brown. This is the 4*4 shelf but you can also get them in 2*4, 2*2, and 5*5.

kallax-rega-bia-y__0243965_PE383236_S4.JPG



They are one of the most common shelves used by board game enthusiasts because of their dimensions, sturdiness, and general aesthetic. If you don't play modern board games, you might be surprised at just how heavy they can be.

Smaller models can be mounted on the wall or on casters. These large Kallax come with wall anchors, but I didn't install them on mine. The 2*4 is designed to be able to go on its side, so that it can be 2*4 or 4*2.
 
On August 27 during a storm it blew a 70 foot tall tree over from a neighboring apartment complexe onto my car. I had a 2013 Mustang GT/CS loaded up with a glass roof and every option, only 38 of them made. Random bad luck sucks, insurance company is still giving me the run around 3 weeks later... but it's totaled

Sorry to hear about your loss
 
I had the Walmart Shelves.

My house got flooded, 2 ft of water in the whole house.

I thought I'd be safe moving my games that were 2 feet or below up to the top of the shelf.

It seemed okay until the flood water left the premises.

I was able to take off the games, starting from the top, and got them all boxed and moved to safety.

But no less than an hour after removing the last game, the shelves along the bottom (that were exposed to water) basically disintegrated, kinda like how cardboard turns to mush when exposed to water.


Thank God I got my stuff out of there before they crashed!


The lesson is: Walmart / Target / Etc stock $30 shelves made out of cheap particle board, and are "assembled" with a few small screws and wooden pegs, often into slots in the particle board.

Particle board, when exposed to water, drinks it up, and it basically ruins the glue holding the particle board together as a board. Hence the disintegration I witnessed.

But particle board is also not that good for holding together with pegs or screwed in directly into the edges, since the board isn't solid wood and only woodchips in a dried glue stew are holding it on.


That's why it's a good idea to get some kind of "solid wood" shelves. Heavy as fuck? Sure, but they won't drink up water / disintegrate and they won't just fall apart, and they have to be assembled with tough joints and connections to keep them together so some games/consoles won't crash them.

As a side note, any solid wood furntiture I had in that flooded house survived 100% and is in great shape after it dried and I cleaned it. Incidentally all of our wood Ikea stuff made it out just fine too.
 
slash000 said:
I had the Walmart Shelves.

My house got flooded, 2 ft of water in the whole house.

I thought I'd be safe moving my games that were 2 feet or below up to the top of the shelf.

It seemed okay until the flood water left the premises.

I was able to take off the games, starting from the top, and got them all boxed and moved to safety.

But no less than an hour after removing the last game, the shelves along the bottom (that were exposed to water) basically disintegrated, kinda like how cardboard turns to mush when exposed to water.


Thank God I got my stuff out of there before they crashed!


The lesson is: Walmart / Target / Etc stock $30 shelves made out of cheap particle board, and are "assembled" with a few small screws and wooden pegs, often into slots in the particle board.

Particle board, when exposed to water, drinks it up, and it basically ruins the glue holding the particle board together as a board. Hence the disintegration I witnessed.

But particle board is also not that good for holding together with pegs or screwed in directly into the edges, since the board isn't solid wood and only woodchips in a dried glue stew are holding it on.


That's why it's a good idea to get some kind of "solid wood" shelves. Heavy as fuck? Sure, but they won't drink up water / disintegrate and they won't just fall apart, and they have to be assembled with tough joints and connections to keep them together so some games/consoles won't crash them.

As a side note, any solid wood furntiture I had in that flooded house survived 100% and is in great shape after it dried and I cleaned it. Incidentally all of our wood Ikea stuff made it out just fine too.
Click to expand...

Good advice, unfortunately it's really hard to find affordable solid wood bookshelves. They get bought really quickly from secondhand stores. I ended up making my own for my son's room after giving up trying to find something decent that didn't cost $400 or more.
 
Azriell said:
If you have an Ikea in your area you might consider getting some Kallax shelves. Here they are in white, but they also come in black and dark brown. This is the 4*4 shelf but you can also get them in 2*4, 2*2, and 5*5.

kallax-rega-bia-y__0243965_PE383236_S4.JPG



They are one of the most common shelves used by board game enthusiasts because of their dimensions, sturdiness, and general aesthetic. If you don't play modern board games, you might be surprised at just how heavy they can be.

Smaller models can be mounted on the wall or on casters. These large Kallax come with wall anchors, but I didn't install them on mine. The 2*4 is designed to be able to go on its side, so that it can be 2*4 or 4*2.
Click to expand...
I use those, they are really useful for just about anything and sturdy as hell. What I love is that the height and depth of each bay is perfect for the large binders containing our household paperwork, that I can keep on the top ones out of reach of our daughter, and the bottom ones are full of her toys, board games and generally organising household clutter. My wife and I use a bay each as a 'pigeonhole' where we can leave post for each other, or stuff the other one needs to deal with.

Really cheap too- in the UK it's cheaper to order them from Amazon as delivery works out cheaper than IKEA.

If you have an odd shaped/small room it's better to make your own though, with the advantage of getting it just right, adding extra supports, leaving space for cables etc if you want, bolting it to the wall etc. Our living room is an odd space so I made all the shelving units by hand to make the most of it.
 
slash000 said:
I had the Walmart Shelves.

My house got flooded, 2 ft of water in the whole house.

I thought I'd be safe moving my games that were 2 feet or below up to the top of the shelf.

It seemed okay until the flood water left the premises.

I was able to take off the games, starting from the top, and got them all boxed and moved to safety.

But no less than an hour after removing the last game, the shelves along the bottom (that were exposed to water) basically disintegrated, kinda like how cardboard turns to mush when exposed to water.


Thank God I got my stuff out of there before they crashed!


The lesson is: Walmart / Target / Etc stock $30 shelves made out of cheap particle board, and are "assembled" with a few small screws and wooden pegs, often into slots in the particle board.

Particle board, when exposed to water, drinks it up, and it basically ruins the glue holding the particle board together as a board. Hence the disintegration I witnessed.

But particle board is also not that good for holding together with pegs or screwed in directly into the edges, since the board isn't solid wood and only woodchips in a dried glue stew are holding it on.


That's why it's a good idea to get some kind of "solid wood" shelves. Heavy as fuck? Sure, but they won't drink up water / disintegrate and they won't just fall apart, and they have to be assembled with tough joints and connections to keep them together so some games/consoles won't crash them.

As a side note, any solid wood furntiture I had in that flooded house survived 100% and is in great shape after it dried and I cleaned it. Incidentally all of our wood Ikea stuff made it out just fine too.
Click to expand...

Those shelves are crap specially if you live on a place like FLORIDA, water and humidity their worse enemy, it's like their kriptonite. Even if water do not touch them humidity will bend them on a few years .
 
LegendofJoe said:
Good advice, unfortunately it's really hard to find affordable solid wood bookshelves. They get bought really quickly from secondhand stores. I ended up making my own for my son's room after giving up trying to find something decent that didn't cost $400 or more.
Click to expand...

You're right.. solid shelves are super expensive.

Building basic shelves yourself is a good idea-- it's not too hard to do, but it does take some work. And if you don't have tools for it, you might have to borrow some from a friend or rent some. So it's some work but it saves money. And it can be a fun project, though!



Alebrije said:
Those shelves are crap specially if you live on a place like FLORIDA, water and humidity their worse enemy, it's like their kriptonite. Even if water do not touch them humidity will bend them on a few years .
Click to expand...

Funny you say that because I live in Houston, TX where it is extremely humid all the time...
 
LegendofJoe said:
Good advice, unfortunately it's really hard to find affordable solid wood bookshelves. They get bought really quickly from secondhand stores. I ended up making my own for my son's room after giving up trying to find something decent that didn't cost $400 or more.
Click to expand...

If you know what to look for you can find solid wood furniture on craigslist for dirt cheap.
 
MaximusNeo701 said:
On August 27 during a storm it blew a 70 foot tall tree over from a neighboring apartment complexe onto my car. I had a 2013 Mustang GT/CS loaded up with a glass roof and every option, only 38 of them made. Random bad luck sucks, insurance company is still giving me the run around 3 weeks later... but it's totaled

Sorry to hear about your loss
Click to expand...

Ouch. Pics of before and after?
 
An update. (Also added to OP.)

Things have gotten worse. X_X

I had some of the bookcase planks leaning against the dresser, I went to move them so I could take some pics and well, they fell apart and smashed into the dresser were I had temporarily put a lot of the cords, comics, and puzzle pieces and psp games I had picked up already, and they all went tumbling down to the floor, along with most of the other stuff on myy dresser, including a year 2000 (millenium) music snow globe...

There is Glass, water, and glitter everywhere. Plus a lot of damage to the psp games. My Saturn Daytona, Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Cop box also got wet. I rushed to dry it right away with a hair dryer..

Anyway... Lack of light + slower than dialup service + crappy old cellphone camera = Potato quality Pics:

t8XP8rs.jpg


IePMqP9.jpg


Iy9krWf.jpg


7rffdmG.jpg


55uvVBm.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, OP. I had my bookcase fall over that for years held all my Working Designs and Atlus games/collectibles. They were mint condition. Most of their packaging got fucked up in the fall. Still hurts to look at them now.
 
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