It is NOT partial assembly.  It is a full assembly with TONS of hardware.  It took 2 of us over 4 hours to put this set together... never again!  I definitely would have paid the $83 for someone to come over and put it together.  By the end of the assembly, the Allen Wrench had killed my friend's hand!  It's a nice set, once it's together, but WOW it took us a long time and a lot of sweat equity.