Shelved

As my comic collection is constantly growing I thought it might be time to invest in some industrial shelving. After considerable thought I opted for two units each 1.8m high. According to the seller each shelf  holds 200kg! According to my calculations each unit would hold 25 boxes, so would be adequate. Hey, these will last me a lifetime surely?

I'd just finished one set of the shelving and placed the last of the boxes onto the top shelf and stepped back to admire my handiwork. It looked pretty impressive. There was a loud clunk from the bottom of the shelves, and the whole lot twisted and started leaning forwards. I instinctively put out my hands to stop it toppling.

 Every time I decide to do any sort of furniture assembly/moving house/DIY it turns out to be one of the hottest days. So I was sweltering and decided it would be best to work in just my shorts. It's amazing how vulnerable you feel when you're minimally clothed and six foot of paper and steel are about to crush you.

I felt sick- I had no option. It was stand there and be crushed, or get the hell out of the way. The racking crumpled like tinfoil, and the whole lot came crashing down with such a racket. Just next to the shelves was a vertical pile of 2000ad (about 4ft tall). It was scattered like a pack of playing cards. I could see some of the boxes were damaged, I just couldn't assess comic damage yet, as I couldn't even reach them. It was a painstaking task of pulling out the boxes (trying to keep the lids on), shelf by shelf, dismantling the racking as I went.

 My Bendis Daredevil box had a gouge out of it, and some of that run were a little bent. The front of an Amazing Spider-Man box was obliterated, and about 10 Bagley issues got pretty bashed. A box of Incredible Hulk had one corner beaten into a rounded edge, just a few issues away from #181.

I rang the company straight away, they insisted the weight allowance stated was correct and I insisted it was not. They had comebacks such as "It's never happened before" and "We have some here with loads of stuff on". They said they'd replace the shelves, but I told them I wasn't prepared to go through this hell again and demanded a refund. They agreed and the shelves were picked up the other day.

 Back to stacking them up I guess...