My very first compact flash card has the honour of being the first digital gizmo to make it into my antique camera cabinet. An absolute whopping 256MB! When I bought this (I think in 2002), it was cutting edge, pretty much top of the range…at £250!
Today a 16GB card costs around £20 in the UK. Using this price as a guide, 256MB would now cost 32p. But going back to 2002, 16GB would have cost £15,625. Ouch! Not the sort of thing to leave in your back pocket in a hot cycle wash!