Used DS or DSi

BobMc

Hey All, on the hunt for a used ds or dsi for my 4yr old, she has a handme down from her older brother and the directional pads dont work shes happy enough using the stylus but it would be nice to get her one with the pads working, but the price on done deal and adverts is crazy when compared to a new one, what the story am I searching in the wrong places or are my price expectations too low,

any suggestions?

Retr0gamer

It's coming up to christmas and the prices are going to be high since the system is still a big seller. Try bargaining with people on adverts.ie, most are open to it. Can't help much really, they still sell quite high.

spix

Well how much are you expecting to get one for? They're very popular and I think the prices they sell on adverts are very reasonable. I have one for sale myself

Dozen Wicked Words

Local game shops might have old trade ins knocking around. You could also try Ebay UK. I would think you are going to have to pay at least 50 euro normally, although I am sure there are occassional bargain to be had.

BobMc

i was expecting to pay around the 50/60 euro mark, some on adverts are looking for e100 or more, I can buy a new one for not much more

Banjo

if you're buying one second hand, try to have a game handy that lets you test all of the functions - ie. the directional pad, the abxy buttons, the shoulder buttons, the touchscreen, the microphone, closing the lid to suspend, wireless functionality. Most of the game shops aren't that fussy when taking the handsets in, but they're also not that diligent when they hand them back out either. Lax testing on my part lead to me picking up a 2nd hand DS Lite from Game with a duff mic on it, didn't come to light until I bought Zelda Spirit Tracks (which *requires* the use of the mic to use the pan pipes that the game is centred around!) by which time it was out of warranty. Still haven't played that game....

The touchpad can be tested in the wireless chat room (don't use the calibration screen as it doesn't show you where the touch was registered, only that a touch was registered, you can get a significant offset between where you touched it and where it thinks you touched it.)

Any game that lets you configure the control scheme (especially fighting games) will let you confirm that the buttons work. Pay attention to the shoulder buttons, they always go first.

Make sure you open and close the screen a few times while it's running, make sure you don't get corruption on the upper screen, could indicate a bad cable.

If there's a charger with it, plug it in and make sure you get the charging led!

Etc etc.