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.
You’re smart. I was looking at one last year, but I didn’t bit the bullet. Luckily, my wife has one lying around that she said I could mod.