So, can someone give me the lowdown on how far we've come? I want to get my wife a mp3 player for x-mas and I have thousands of MP3's that she could burn each day.

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=blue>Bless</font color=blue> <font color=red>America!</font color=red>

Well, CDRW is definately the cheapest method. I have a friend who bought an MP3 CD player about a year ago and it didn't work that well - there would be extra pause in between all tracks. I'm sure there are advances today so this doesnt' happen...probably.
Personally, I just bought a Creative Nomad IIc with 64MB of internal flash memory plus a slot for a smartmedia card up to 128MB. For me, this is the best method. I can't burn CDRs quicker than about 9 min. and CDRWs take about 25min. I wanted something that I could load up a couple of hours worth of music into in less than 5 min. and then go. The flash memory type allow this. I also think it would be hard to select which song you want to listen to if you have a whole CDRW worth of mp3s (about 10hours worth). The other method I looked at was the Jukebox kind, but again I thought it would be too hard to locate one CD or one MP3 that you wanted to hear amongst 6-40GB of MP3s. On my computer it is easy to find MP3s, but on an LCD screen? Probably not as easy to work with.
I have only had the Nomad for a couple days, but so far it meets my expectations. The headphones suck (of course) but the player sounds fine with new headphones. And smartmedia cards are extremely cheap now - 128MB cards are around $55 on Pricewatch for SanDisk.

.02

*Too late with my suggestion, but maybe it will help others*

I would go with the MP3-CD. You can carry around a fair bit of music. If you have the money, look at something like the Nomad Jukebox (there are similar product too). They hold even more music.

IMHO, the MP3 players that flash cards isn't worth the investment. (They don't hold enough music and are relatively expensive)

In any event, try to get one that is firmware upgradeable.
USB and LCD display are extras that you may want to consider. (not all LCD screens are created equal).

Unable to eject disk from C: Drive...
Abandon, Retain, Ignite?

I just bought the Napa 3in cd mp3 player, should get it in a few days. I can give you some input there.

I recently bought an Intel built in 64mb ram, with an MMC slot, and wasn't very pleased. About 60minutes of mp3's on 64mb at 128kb, and another 64mb costs about $50.

I looked into 8cm (Mini-CD) mp3 players, and it seems to me that's the way to go. 185MB per disc that cost as low as .50 a piece in a 100 bundle. Or about $1 a disc with cases in a 20 pack. Nice, and it is able to use Mp3's. The main detearent in this case is batterie usage, but I'll be getting 4-8 rechargeable batteries and a charger, so that will save some dough on batteries.

All in all each disc will hold 3 hours of music, as compared to 1 on the Intel Unit.

I'll comment more when I get it if you'd like.

<b>"These are my thoughts, your mileage may vary."