I'll join.
I remember getting mine just as I'd saved up enough money... but I'd been saving for so long I couldn't get the Nintendogs bundle I wanted because they had sold out (despite having supposibly put one under the desk for me, reserved), I had to get Nintendogs seperately, and buy my DS as part of another bundle. x_x Putting me easily 30 quid over budget. AND THEN a few weeks later they released that newer version. >_> I personally like the first (the big silver one) better than those smaller ones (my sis has the newer, smaller DS, its black paint job is so shiny you can leave fingerprints all over it... no matter how clean your hands are, and the colour of the game screens... omg! They blind me.) that seem a bit stiff and fragile. I even have a gorgeous temp.tattoo (that now won't come off because I "baked" it on with my desk lamp, hehehe) on the top of a chinese dragon to make it more... blinged out. Hah! Take that new shiny-er DS's etc.
P.S.
I still have my "original" DS. It's like new... except for the tattoo and slight wear on the touchscreen (there's also a bright green pixel in the top screen that - as far as I can remember - never works no matter what games I play, rofl... but still, I can identify my DS if it was ever stolen or mixed up with a bunch of others because of it.

). XD Lovingly used and cherished you could say.