Well, Shawn, it depends on the size of the hole it leaves behind,,, and that would depend on the gauge size of the nails,,,, Staplers are nice too, they do have better holding power. but leave a noticable hole, because they are,,,, Staples,,,,, if you are putting them some place where they will not be noticed, then they are fine ... like holding on the back or something like that,,, If I was going to have to fasten the side or front,,, I would stick with the air brad or finnish nailer,, becaues you can just put a dab of wood puddy in the hole if its noticable,,, hahaha I think I have bought EVERY nailer that Harbor Freight sells,,, and they work fine for me,,, especially at the prices they ask for them,,,
I see that Randy is a desciple of HF,,,, great !
Shawn.. you did not say what gauge your nailer is,,, could be maybe about 16 gauge,,, shoot it into a peice of scrap wood and see what the hole looks like,, if you can live with it and have nails that are a good size to use, just use it and then fill the holes to hide them. I do not think the longest ones are a good choice in this case,,, too much of a chance to blow out the side and ruin your peice. You are really depending on the glue to do most of the holding together in the end, so dont go over board on the nails and creat more work for yourself to hide them.
I made a golf ball display case not long ago and it is probably a lot like what you are making,,, not a lot of nails in it... mostly glue.