I do know that Zip disks once sold for quite a bit also. So, no big savings there. Of course, that puts Jaz out of the picture for doing a system backup.
Tape drives are def.
Now, in order to really make use of the Re-Writable media, one should install the Adaptec DirectCD driver. With it, you don't have to erase the entire re-writable disk just to put something else on it. Works just like a harddrive, just a lot slower. The major problem with using directCd is that you have to install it on the pc that you want to read a DCD formatted disk with, so you have to be sure to bring the install disk with you. However, they're very fast.