FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

This Dude Is Collecting Your Old AOL CDs

If you haven’t trashed them by now.

Like Tamagotchis and Yak Paks, AOL CDs have gone practically extinct. But, as they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and that man is Jason Scott.

The San Francisco-based developer issued a plea on his website asking people to send in the shiny spinning discs. He doesn't see them as trash, rather Scott wants to preserve the diversely decorated discs for a history project. It's only fitting since he works for the Internet Archive.

"For some time, half of all CDs manufactured in the world had an AOL logo on them. Like it or not, folks—those things are payloads of history, Scott writes. "You see, there wasn't 'a' AOL CD that went out. There were so many variations, containing so many different add-ons and wrap-ins, that they become time capsules in themselves."

It didn't take long for fans on Hacker News to conjure up some fond memories of the AOL discs. "My dad collected a ton of these, thinking they'd have value someday. I thought he was nuts," wrote one.

Inspired? Send the discs to Jason Scott, c/o Internet Archive AOL CDs, 300 Funston Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118.