I've seen a lot of bad reviews filled with incorrect information about this product. I own three of these units.

Is it sturdy? Yes, if it is assembled CORRECTLY AND COMPLETELY. There are some photos in other reviews that show the shelves half assembled and imply that they are not strong. These are very misleading. ALL PARTS must be installed correctly. (On one unit I received was missing a part and the manufacturer shipped it to me quickly.)

Will they hold 5000 lbs as advertised? Who knows but they are very strong. Stronger than other shelf units I have purchased.

The shelves themselves are fiber board. One review mentioned that they bowed under weight. I have placed some heavy dishes and bowling balls on them and have not noted any bowing. Again if they are installed correctly, the shelf is supported all the way around the perimeter by a metal bracket.

Are they easy to assemble? Yes if you are handy and understand the mechanical principles involved (disclaimer I am an engineer). It helps to have two people at some points but I have done all mine alone.

The metal frames and the fiber board shelves are quite heavy so there is the potential for damage in shipping. The box is so heavy that the people that deliver it to my house appear to drag it from the truck to my gate where they leave it. In all cases the boxes have been damaged but the shelves were fine.

In summary if you are good at assembling this type of thing and you want to store reasonably heavy stuff on a sturdy shelf, this is a good product.

This assembles in about 30 minutes and it helps to have a hammer or mallet. Simply insert studs into rivets. Fairly straightforward except the studs do not fit tightly into the holes and continually fall out during construction until the particleboard shelf is place in position. Having a hammer helps to "lock" them into position, but it is still touch and go. They are held down by gravity. The 4 corner uprights are shipped as 8 pieces. They are held together by butting the upper with the lower and inserting the bottom stud of the shelf horizontal strut in to the top hole of the lower vertical and the top stud into the upper vertical. They do not overlap for additional strength at this butt joint.

Lots of reviews state that the unit is wobbly. However I use it to hold my baseball card collection, about one million cards about 4000lbs and it holds up just find.

The vertical uprights and horizontal shelf struts are made of 16 gauge painted steel. 16 gauge steel is approximately 0.06" thick. if you stack 16 sheets of 16 gauge material you would have a thickness of about one inch so the steel is about 1/16 of an inch thick. Point is that the steel is very light weight. The manufacturer claims a 5000 lbs load.

One star is the lowest rating you can give anything in this fits this like perfectly. No way I could hold the amount of weight that says, if you try to build the five stacker good luck with that makes two small shells way overpriced particleboard not metal for the shelves. Suggest buy something else you'll be very disappointed really really too expensive at the hundred dollars I paid and that $200 is a joke.

Having purchased several of the https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FZDT5OE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 shelves I expected the same quality. I was grossly mistaken. I started to return these but needed the shelving. The steel in these are weak at best very flimsy. In order to connect the two upright sections you span a bracket between the upper and lower post. You need 3 people to accomplish this feat, because you are trying to hold the post's end to end and hammer a brace between them.. I hope these hold up but I'm not holding my breath. The other's referenced earlier are great.

The shelves are fairly easy to assemble. A rubber mallet might make the process a bit faster. Negative one star because the packaging was awful. I ordered 4. Each one was individually wrapped as expected. Every single box arrived busted open on the ends, some with the metal cross bars sticking out. The metal was not damaged surprisingly. The Mdf shelves weren't as lucky. But that's not a problem for me, i have lots of mdf laying around to replace the damaged ones.