Premium Quartet Cork Bulletin Board 4' x 3' with Black Frame (2304B) - Perfect for Office, Classroom, or Home Organization & Memo Display

The item was a 4x6 foot cork bulletin board. It arrived damaged and I considered returning it, but a replacement could take up to 2 months and might not be in any better shape. One end was slightly bent, and the other end was so bent that the cork and backer board were out of the frame channel. I managed to straighten the frame and get the cork back into the channel. I ran picture hanging wire from one end to the other on the back to keep the frame pulled together. After about 3 hours it was in good enough shape to install. I was surprised to see the thickness of the cork. It was very thin and, I think, mostly for looks. Amazon did help me out due to the item being damaged.People seem to love this or hate it so here's the our verdict, 5 years later. We bought it to keep track of calendars, school schedules, etc. for kids. We only hung paper items, including printable calendar pages by month, & we used push pins. We hung it on one the side of a tall cabinet using Command strips so as not to damage the cabinet. It has worked fine for that. 5 years later, there are numerous raised areas where the push pins go, due to many removals & replacements of papers. Nothing ripped or fell apart. So for the price, it has worked well with what I'd consider light use for 5 years. We're replacing it now just because the cork is looking a little tired. (The Command strips did fail periodically so that wasn't ideal but that's a separate issue.) If you are looking for a thick, quality cork that withstands a lot of use, or heavier duty use, this is probably not the right product.One of the things I like about this cork board is that the push pins can go all the way in, not just part of the way. It's great to have it around and comes in as handy as I thought it would. The problem is, and this is the only reason that I didn't give it 4 stars, that in order to hang it, you must use screw anchors in the wall, something expressly forbidden by my lease. (Well that's one reason that I hate apartment living!) When in my own home, I could do anything I wanted, but screw anchors are out here. I propped my bulletin board up in a good space for it, where it's out of the way, but handy to reach, and I'm getting good use out of it. The frame is just beautiful and is so much nicer than most bulletin boards that one sees around. If you're in your own home, the hardware that comes with this is fine. If you're in an apartment house with the same restrictions with which I live, do as I have done. Get a picture hanging kit for a picture frame. It will come with little screws with holes at the end of it. You can screw two of these it into two sides of the back of the frame of this bulletin board, then attach the wire that comes with it. Bang in a thin nail that can easily be spackled over, and hang the bulletin board from that. I just got my own picture hanging kit, and will put the bulletin board up in the next couple of days without having to do something my lease forbids (and I don't want to repair before I leave). With this kind of set up, you can easily use this bulletin board in an apartment. Hint: Put the screws only one third of the way down the frame, or less, or else it will be tipping outwards instead of sitting almost perfectly level against the wall. I would still purchase this again, but it would have been nice for the write-up to include the information that the hardware included necessitates screw anchors being used - or for the bulletin board to include the screw holes and picture wire to hang the bulletin board in an alternate manner. Aside from the hanging issue, this is a good bulletin board and won't disappoint you.This is THE cheapest product. I ordered 3 and only opened one box, there was zero need to open the others. The paper thin cork "sheet" was barely holding on to the plastic backing. When I tested a thumb tack, it went immediately, completely through the board. The ultra cheap "frame" was coming apart and I was just astounded that I spent $300 on literally unusable materials! I tried to return them but this seller insists the buyer pay full postage. Because I had the 4x3 size, postage was $324...that's MORE than I was scammed for the purchase!! Needless to say, my husband threw them in the dumpster at the post office so we wouldn't have to haul them anywhere else. I am confident the seller markets these to be quality, KNOWS they are junk, then charges almost exactly what the return postage would be because who can afford that? I'm out $300, I couldn't afford to lose another $300 just so they would have them to s am someone else with! RUN from this seller and product!I felt compelled to write the review because I was hesitant to purchase this product fearing that it could arrived damaged as much smaller dry erase boards I have ordered through Amazon were. I am assuming they have improved their packaging because it was actually packed quite well in two boxes with a significant amount of padding on all of the edges and corners. Also the cork board seems to be of good quality (maybe not great but after all the thing is huge and not much more than $100 shipped) and takes regular thumbtacks no problem which was a concern I had from some other reviews.I will say though that you have to be at least a little handy to be able to secure the product on a wall per the instructions. The drywall anchors didn't seem cheap but I still had a bit of a problem with getting one in properly. Also I broke two drill bits drilling into the aluminum edge of the board to secure it but I was just using regular drill bits since I wasn't prepared to drill into metal and just wanted to get it on the wall. You may want to make sure that you have the proper tools including a drill, stud finder, a 1/4" drill bit and a 1/8" drill bit rated for drilling in metal. I think some other reviewers have skipped this step but since it is in our busy warehouse I wanted to make certain that it is secured properly and they did provide what was necessary to do so. I had another person help me with the initial measuring but other than that was able to install it myself in an hour or so.It is not 5 x 3 it is 5 feet x 34.25 inches (not the advertised 36 inches).The cork itself is very thin and the pins pop about a millimetre through to the back, but not far enough through to puncture the wall (because the frame creates a gap). This wasn't a big problem for me because you can't see it.When I bought this it was $124 so it was a great deal for the size of the cork board and the metal frame looks fairly expensive.All together I would buy this again because the false size and thickness problems don't really affect me and it does its job.If you do buy this make sure to take you're own measurements rather than using the ones in the manual for hanging your board because the sizing is off.Shipping carton looked okay but after opening found the main back board to be cracked, no time to replace it as it has to go up, really disappointing to put a broken pcs up on the wall.A little flimsy and hard to install on drywall but otherwise looks good & was delivered in good conditionDecent for the price.Fits our wall in our lunchroom perfectly. Was easy to install and the quality is great (as expected from Quartet).