Back in the mid-90s, consumer CD burning was pretty new. At the time blank CDs were about $1 each, but it wasn't uncommon for the disk to become unreadable in less than a year because of degradation.

There was however another option -- gold plated CDs. These were $10 each, but supposedly lasted at least 10 years without going bad.

My entire dorm floor shared the cost of one box, and we'd use it for our most precious files -- our MP3 collection.

I still wonder where that disk is and if it still works...