The CD binder was basically the survival kit for anyone who lived through the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Before streaming, you weren’t just carrying music—you were carrying a collection, and those giant zip-up binders packed with 100, 200, sometimes 500 discs were the flex. Instead of clunky jewel cases that cracked if you looked at them wrong, binders gave you sleeves—slide the disc in, maybe the album art if you cared enough, and boom, portable library. They peaked around 1998–2005, right as burned CDs exploded thanks to Napster and Limewire. Everyone had one: road trips, dorm rooms, backseats full of mix CDs labeled with Sharpie. Today, you open one up and it’s like a time capsule—scratched discs, weird mixes, and the soundtrack of your teenage years in one zip.