I really like the stuff I see on http://www.boxedart.com. I am convinced that its worth the money but I hate to have to download the big files. And I also hate the fact the the membership will expire in 6 months (or a year depending on how much you are willing to pay).

I was wondering if I can buy a CD or DVD from somewhere with similar type of quality stuff (not those that are titled like 100000 clip art images etc.). Any ideas?

You can go to websites like www.sxc.hu for some free stock photographs which are quite handy.

also, one of my favorite is istockphoto. you can buy images of different resolutions based on the need and its credit based. The prices are really fair, the selection is great and the website is very user friendly.