Stock up on Blank CD's and DVD's now....prices will be rising!

It's never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket, and if that's how you feel about cloud backups, there's a good chance you're also still using optical discs to store your precious data. If so, now would be a good time to assess your optical disc inventory and, if necessary, stock up on more media. Otherwise, you might end up paying a 50 percent premium by the second half of 2013.

According to DigiTimes, the optical disc industry is in the midst of a "reshuffle" in which disc makers in Japan, along with second-tier and third-tier makers in Taiwan, have all stopped producing inventory. As a result, optical disc prices are expected to jump by nearly 50 percent in the next six months once demand catches up with and surpasses supply.

On the bright side, most optical disc media is fairly inexpensive these days, save for some Blu-ray media and certain high quality CDs and DVDs. What's more, the optical drive market appears to be shrinking. Most Ultrabooks don't even ship with an optical drive, and due to rock bottom prices, Sony exited the market altogether just a few months ago.