Recommendations for DVD shelf?

[blinkangel44]

[I apologize in advance if I'm posting this in the wrong place!]

I just graduated from high school, so I'm headed off to college this fall. Over the past couple of years, I have become obsessed with collecting DVDs, so I have accumulated a modest collection that definitely pales in comparison to those of everyone here on DVD Talk. I tried to roughly count them all last night (trying to finally comprehensively clean up my room before I leave... after years of my mom nagging me about it...). So what I ended up doing was counting box sets as 2, 3, or 4 DVDs based on thickness. My current shelf only holds about 150... we bought it cheap @ Bed, Bath, and Beyond and it doesn't have like a solid back so my DVDs are always falling through. My entire collection is probably ~250ish, but I want something that holds at least 300 so I can comfortably add more. I'm planning on storing DVDs at home 'til I graduate then hopefully transporting 'em to a place of my own one day...

Wow, sorry for the obnoxiously long post... let me get to the point... what reasonably priced DVD storage can you recommend for me? I want something sturdy (unlike what I have now!), and I want something that displays them as well (so no drawers or anything). We've looked around BBB and Target and can't seem to find anything at all. I'm just looking for any and all suggestions! I don't have a ton of room, either... so it would also be nice if it's compact (but I can probably re-arrange some stuff since I won't be living here for too much longer!).

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance! :)

[SPIDERone]

As someone who has gone through all sorts of DVD shelves (over 10 different types), always looking for the "perfect shelf", there are only 2 that stand out.
One is this type:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2959/shelf1.jpg
(not my picture)

Inexpensive (~$40-50), holds a decent amount (mine are 6 shelves, hold about 40 discs each), relatively sturdy, look fine (they come in black). The downside is that they're kind of short and kind of fat (not too good for saving space). Overall not bad though.

The other type are these atlantic steel shelving units:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/563/12tiermaxsteelshelving6.jpg

These are nice as they're the opposite of the above (not to wide, but very tall). They go up to 12 shelves each (which leaves me with about 1.5 feet from the top DVD to the ceiling), vary in price (I bought one for $79, one for $119 and then saw them at high as $160) so get them on sale if you can.
The big downside of these are that they're not very sturdy - especially when filled, these things can come crashing down if you're not careful (they do come with wall-anchors though). The other downside are that non-standard cases (like PSP UMD discs) are too thin and won't stay on the shelves (they fall between the cracks). DVD/HDDVD/BLU discs all work fine though.

Both are adjustable to allow more or less space per shelf (but more space per shelf = less shelves).

After going through plastic towers, wooden spinning shelves, solid wood shelves, aluminum wireframe shelves, etc.. these are the only 2 I can deal with. They're cheap, hold a lot of discs and they don't take up too much space.

[blinkangel44]

Thanks for the response, SPIDERone! That first pic looks like the one I have now, where the DVDs just kinda have to balance. Does anyone know if there is a shelf similar to it that exactly has a back to it? It seems that everytime my little sister goes into my room to get a DVD she knocks the whole thing over and I have to constantly re-alphabetize.

[Sdallnct]

Ikea is generally the place most people recommend.

However, as I'm about to ship my son off to college, I got to ask, are you sure you want to take all that will you? And even if you do, are you going to have room?

My son will be staying (most likely) in a 2 bedroom on campus apartment. But the bedroom is tinny and the apartments are furnished so not much room.

I basically told him to take his top 75 DVD's to start with. Then if he figures out room and such (and it is safe) then I can take him or ship him the rest. After all I'm sure you can trust your roomy but there might be endless amounts of friends of friends coming in. Soooo....It might be smart sort of check out the area for a semester first.

I don't mean to act like a dad or your parent. But you obviously care a lot about your collection and have accumulated a nice one.

[blinkangel44]

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that I'd be taking it with me to college (I think I'd be afraid of it getting stolen or something). I'm leaving it at my house and then I'll take it with me in a few years when I have an apartment or whatever. I just don't want to have to keep buying new shelves and whatnot... I want something that I'll still be using five years down the road.

Thanks for the Ikea suggestion... I think I'll try to head there with my mom sometime this week! :)

[mzupeman2]

I watched people on this forum talk about IKEA for years. I finally bit the bullet in February. I couldn't be happier.

[blinkangel44]

Yeah, I was just looking around their website and it looks extremely promising! The closest store is a bit far from where I live, but I definitely think a trip is worth it.

[cko]

Glad you are not gonna take all that to your dorm. I was gonna post that that would be a really bad idea because people are gonna want to borrow stuff and you may not get it back. And you won't always be around so your roommate may borrow or lend stuff himself. My freshman year roommate had a nice cd collection and people were always asking. He had stickers on all his stuff but still had problems.

But with music and video pirating nowdays, maybe college kids don't borrow anymore? :)