This could have gone in GQ, but I didn’t want to clutter that place up.
I have friends who remove CDs/DVDs from their cases and stack them all on a tube-like carrier. I have other friends who carelessly leave them out, stacked up, on their desk.
My boyfriend yells at me if I put one on the table long enough to switch it out of my drive.
So which is it? Are they completely vulnerable, the second I leave them out they get scratched, or are they a little tougher than that?
There are a number of variables; some of the cheaper brands (and ‘non’ brands) seem to use a slightly softer plastic that scratches more readily; in any case, the really vulnerable bit is the label side, as the coating is often very thin there (and the important bit - the metal layer) is right underneath it. Some of the more expensive brands have an extra, or tougher, plastic layer between the metal and the label.
Stacking them on a desk is asking for trouble - they’ll get scratched as they move around, they’ll accumulate dust (making them more prone to scratches) and they tend to get knocked on the floor, where they will be promptly trodden on (or more often, run over by the wheel of an office chair in the very act of trying to retrieve them). Stacking them on a spindle is quite suitable for archiving purposes, but care must be taken that the writing on the labels is done with the right kind of pen, or it could end up marking the playing surface of the disc stacked on top if it.
Everything Mangetout said, plus this anecdotal evidence: I have CDs from 1983 that still have no scratches and play fine. I have CD-Rs from 1998 that still have no scratches and play fine. I keep all discs in jewel cases at all times, except for when they’re being played. On the other hand, I made a CD for a friend a couple of months ago, and he’s already asked for a replacement because the original is so scratched up, it won’t play anymore. If you treat your discs with TLC, they will probably last as long as you do.
I always get the feeling that our kids will giggle at us when we gingerly handle CDs in the same way we rolled our eyes at the way our Grandparents would handle a vinyl record with the gentle touch of a museum curator.