Vintage Rare 2001 AOL V7.0 Leopard-Print CD-ROM, New Factory-Sealed & BEAUTIFUL!

Back in the waning days of the 20th Century and the early days of the 21st, America Online was the dominant Internet web portal and online service provider in the United States. Launched in 1983 as PlayNET, then Q-Link in 1985, and finally renamed America Online in 1989, AOL grew to become the largest online service, edging out older competitors such as CompuServe, Prodigy, GEnie, and The Source. One of the reasons for this was AOL’s innovative marketing technique. Promoting itself as the dial-up service for computer newbies (as opposed to CompuServe’s computer-savvy members), AOL performed incredible advertising outreach to the country at large. Beginning with 5½″ floppy discs(!) included with 1st-generation modems, progressing to loose 3½″ floppy discs, and finally shrink-wrapped floppies on colorful card stock (and, ultimately, superseded by CD-ROM disks in beautifully illustrated packaging), AOL distributed its installation software — along with offers of hundreds of FREE HOURS of user time — via unconventional outlets far beyond computer stores. At one point, 50% of all CDs manufactured were made for AOL.

This lovely AOL disc (part number PA602M30) with a copyright date of 2001 is factory sealed, New-Unopened, and in Very Fine condition (the clear vinyl packaging — rarely used on AOL discs — has some warping from being in a stack of other discs for 22 years). Being vinyl, however, means it could be smoothed out with some gentle heating from a hair dryer set on low, but that’s up to you — I’m not going to experiment! It offered the user 1025 HOURS FREE for joining! The beautiful/sexy leopard-print artwork can be appreciated by referring to the photos in this listing. It was so popular in the 2000 Version 6 giveaway CDs that they repeated the eye-catching design here a year later!

Did you and your loved one meet on AOL? One of our customers bought a disc as an anniversary gift because the copyright year of the disc matched the year that they met on AOL!

How about a Birthday? Wedding Anniversary? First year that you ______? (Fill in the blank.)

If you have fond memories of the AOL discs that you turned into drink coasters, mini-Frisbees, or skeet targets, or if you’re too young to know anything but streaming and downloads, you can own this pristine example of physical mass-advertising from a vanished era.

Postage: Computer discs qualify for USPS Media Mail rates. Yay! (I can’t send them 1st Class Letter rate because they are rigid.)

Dimensions of carded disc are:

• Height: 5 ⅛″
• Width: 5⅛″
• Weight: 0.8 oz.

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