The item was securely packaged. It took longer to get the thing out of the package than to assemble it. As others have mentioned, the paint on the metal  peels very quickly. When you screw the nuts on, the paint will definitely peel. Despite the careful packaging, and how carefully we assembled it, we noticed other places the paint had gone missing, too, not just around the nuts. Because of the way this item is constructed, the weight capacity is pretty low something to keep in mind if you plan on filling this with liquor bottles. Each shelf can hold  only 10 pounds and overall its a fragile though lovely design. We dont think its worth the discounted price of 200 we got it for. Its acceptable value is 150. Very pretty, though.