I have never seen a factory pressed CD/DVD fail. Optical media is the most reliable.
There was an issue with discs made by the PDO pressing plant in the UK between 89 and 93 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc_bronzing
I bought a CD boxset of all the MAD Magazine issues from launch until the late 90s (when I bought it). About 8 years later I still had it and attempted to back it up into ISOs It was like 6 discs and of course disc 5 was unreadable so the entire thing was useless :-/
Hmm, there might be some procedures to help you to get them backed up to ISOs, even if they seem unreadable. What program did you try to use to make the ISOs?
I have no idea, this was like 15 years ago haha It was probably Nero or Roxio. At this point I’m sure I could download the whole collection from somewhere.
I’ve seen it, but I collect a lot of magazine cover discs, 90s PC games and stuff, it’s def pretty darn rare. ‘Did the previous owner(s) abuse the disc?’ is a vastly higher concern for me in my eBay adventures.
Oddly enough there is a specific album, live’s secret samadhi, that I’ve never found a rippable copy of. I’ve found like five copies over the past half decade at used record stores, all in seemingly perfect condition in terms of lack of scratches, but they won’t play correctly all the way through or rip correctly. Could be anecdotal bad luck, but I think the cd pressing of that album has bit rot in general for some reason. I’ve not seen that on any other factory discs I’ve ripped.