[quote name='The Linguist']So this is a permanent price drop and not a temporary sale? On the site, the higher prices appear with red lines through them, which made me wonder.[/QUOTE]
They drop down to this price about once a year when their PS2 inventory gets too high. I remember it last year and by the time I decided to get one they price had gone back up, so if you want one, don't wait too long to get it.
I finally picked one up this time and since it's a used unit, I also paid the $8 to get their 2-year extended warranty.
While the older models may be more hackable, I'm glad I got the slim that has the internal power adapter (9001?) so it only has a slim power cable and video cable with no bricks.
Mine originally came with some generic non-Dualshock controller, but I took it in this afternoon and they had no problem swapping it for an actual Sony Dualshock 2 controller. I just need to find a game that uses the vibration effect so I can make sure the controller actually works correctly.
I only have a handful of PS2 games right now and have played a couple of them on my PS3, but I figured it's better to play them on a PS2 and spare the stress on my PS3.
BTW: This is also my first PS2. I had many consoles before the PS2 (Atari 400/800, Nintendo, Sega Genesis), but missed out on the Game Cube/Dreamcast/PS1/PS2/XBOX generations because that's when I was in college and graduate school (while working full-time), so I really didn't have time for games during that period of my life. Of course I did spend some time playing PC games...that was more than enough to consume what little free time I had that I saw no reason to buy a console system.