My stand arrived in great shape within the original shipping carton. I had no scratches or dents and each metal piece was wrapped in a plastic bag along with a small bag of hardware. Putting the unit together was fairly straight forward and I had no issues interpreting the one page instruction sheet. I decided to beef up the hardware a bit by adding extra washers and nuts from my spare parts. I was concerned that the cage holder hook nut would loosen over time and drop the cage so I added an extra nut to ensure it wouldn't come apart. The stand holds my 16" cubic cage just fine and I am pleased with the purchase.