I remember that awkward period after we outgrew floppies but before USB flash storage became mainstream when CD-RW and CD+RW (Yes there was a difference and it mattered!) being peddled as the next portable storage format. My first USB stick was 128 megabytes and cost around $60. I actually still have it, but it may no longer work. I believe I bought it in around 2003 or 2004. I remember them steadily decreasing in price, or at least price per unit storage, very quickly over the ensuing years, to the point where they were giving away multi-gig sticks by around 2009 or 2010.


At Uni. I’d bought a 64MB MP3 USB player which replaced my mini disc player that got stolen. When buying I hadn’t realised how useful it would be for transfering uni work. Plus the uni had a fast connection so we could torrent MP3s real quickly (before they finally woke up and properly locked their machines and network down).
This was the fellow!
https://ebay.io/m/xgXpwb