We looked at tons of these made out of manufactured wood or fiberboard and they were much less expensive, but ultimately we decided we wanted solid wood and the price for this shelf was reasonable for solid wood.  Assembly is not difficult but takes some time.  The screws that hold the back of the shelf on are a little thick and hard to screw in with the enclosed tool. If the screw isn’t perfectly centered, it will cause the shelf wood to split, which happened to us in a couple of places. Frustrating, but once you fill the shelf, you can’t see it.