With the Wii and the VC around, buying old consoles, unless you're a collector, seems very pointless. Why bother?
People love the old consoles for their looks, their games, their success, the fact they came in cool plastic cartridges with styly stickers on... But thanks to the VC, to save money on the consoles, it's possible to choose to play all those games in a single one. Which is good if you don't mind playing them in a white shiny console, instead of the traditional and, by many, good old, black and gray ones. At least, the PS3 controller still reminds me of the SEGA Mega Drive or Saturn controllers.
Let me just say this is not meant to start a war. I know this topic introduction sounds controversial. It's only because I'm trying to introduce it in a general opinion, which is not exactly my own.