By way of chance, I looked at yahoo auctions and found a gem: Aiwa ACD-300. it's an external SCSI CD-ROM drive that doubles as a proper standalone tray-loader CD player.

I bought it through a friend in Japan and it's going to stay at her place in Kyoto for a little while. Shipping is pretty costly and I'm still stuck 300 miles from home.

I've been looking for one of these for nearly a decade. To think I'd find one on yahoo auctions eventually is pretty crazy to me.