According to Loki, my cat, the scratching post is pretty awesome!  As soon as I pulled it out of the box he started attacking it and hugging it.  Lol!  It is very stable, meaning it doesn't fall over when my cats get rowdy unlike scratching posts in the past. 
Best of all, all of the cats prefer it to my furniture...Thank Goodness!!!!!!  For the price, it is a good purchase and I will probably order another one for our upstairs playroom.