I bought a 3DS XL sometimes last year. It was under $200.
After seeing the surge in demand, I feel lucky that I bought it when I did. I also decided to take it out and play some animal crossing new leaf for the first time and I’m really enjoying it.
I sometimes wonder if I should have bought the “new” variant back then, but they were much more expensive and I’m still not sure if the performance improvements would have been worth it.
I’m basically just using not for ds and 3ds games, so, I’m guessing the power difference would not really matter.
The main advantage I have seen with my kids in the 2DS over the 3DS is that the 2DS survives being shaken without issues. My kids tended to shake the consoles when they got angry that they lost a game. Try doing that with the 3DS and you are soon going to build a GBA Macro.