My friend's dad got a 1200 baud modem when they first came out for some obscene amount of money. Back then Compuserve used to charge by your connection speed. I was mowing lawns to pay $6.25 (~$20) an hour to play British Legends at 300 baud and he was paying ~$12 (~$38!!) an hour to connect at 1200. Plus phone bill fees, which weren't negligible back then, even for local calls!
Making the jump from 300 baud to 2400 felt like magic!