While the 3DS was one of the more affordable mainstream video game systems there's been, I wasn't exactly swimming in spare cash in the early-to-mid aughts. Being in college ate up a good chunk of my spare time then, too.
I heard that Nintendo will be disabling a lot of the servers used for supporting 3DS online functionality. This announcement inspired me to grab a 3DS before certain features (at least officially-supported features) ride off into the sunset.
As of this week, I am the proud owner of a 3DS! I never procrastinate, after all. It has a cute little green dinosaur on it. I'm told this version is rather rare.
Apparently the resale market for 3DS systems is a little crazy, and North American models often cost considerably more than they did when they first came out! I ended up buying a Japanese model. Thanks to favorable exchange rates, Japanese models are significantly less expensive than other models, and they tend to be in better condition as well. My 3DS arrived in about a week (yes, really), and for me there weren't any fees or taxes besides regular Florida sales tax. I was also happy to see that it's in excellent condition.
The 3DS was region-locked (boo!), so originally you couldn't play games from other regions on your 3DS. Thankfully, however, custom firmware allows you to make a lot of improvements to your 3DS's functionality, including eliminating region-locking.
I followed the step-by-step directions here. The process takes a bit of time, but I found the directions to be very easy to understand.
My 3DS UI is still in Japanese, but I can play North American games in English. I've thought about changing my 3DS's region so I can use an English UI, though I've heard that can break the eShop. Then again, the eShop is only useful for downloading game updates, which can be acquired through other means if necessary.
I've found the Google Translate app on my phone to be helpful (and pretty accurate) in automatically translating text on my 3DS. Most of the buttons have icons that help point you in the right direction anyway.
I'm going to have a lot of fun catching up on 3DS games I never experienced! I've only played one 3DS game so far - Mario Kart 7. But I'm bidding for a bunch of games on eBay, and I'm planning to try a bunch more games in the weeks and months to come. Feel free to suggest things for me to try.