Man, I got super lucky finding this at such a great price I'm ashamed to tell. I'd almost part with it but I know if I do then I'll never have another so guess I'll add it to the NES collection for the time being since it isn't eating anything.  

Never even heard of these actually. tho I never thought to look. Is it, ehhhhhhh, pricey or , OOOOOF, pricey?

I'd say oof. Here's one if you need a back up or price comparison
Nice score tho! Never realized I needed one😉https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/...

These come in hand for a variety of things such as prototypes that don't fit in a top loader, and I use to for my game action reply to fit as well (after removing the game action reply from the case)
Nice score!

I'm jealous! But thanks to an NES to Famicom adaptor followed by a Famicom to NES adaptor I can use Game Genie in my toploader now!

Nice score. Why don’t people like to say what they paid? 

I always figured people didnt get as good of a deal as they WANT people to believe they did. 

Not saying the OP is doing that for the record

Why wouldn't they just lie then?  Like, if they already want you to believe it was cheap, and there's no consequence or accountability to saying a low number...eh, people are weird, I guess  
 

I've read about this but never seen one. Interesting that they were so stringent about it being compatible only with the top-loader... why?

Probably so people wouldn't get it stuck inside a front loader and blame Galoob when they broke it or the NES trying to get it out.

Probably the same reason I once saw a magic marker with the warning "Harmful If Swallowed."

 

The price paid is the most interesting part, imo. 

 

I wanted one of these 15 years ago but never took the plunge. Dumb move but oh well. I always hold onto the hope that I'll randomly find one someday, but honestly I barely even stumble across NES Game Genie's anymore.

I got one of these new in box many years ago when some guy was clearancing them on EBAY.

another item to look out for in the wild .....

Any chance you would take (and post) some measurements of the unit? Finally seeing a comparatively high resolution photo of one makes me believe that the stories about there being NES-101 compatible Game Genies being released later on are true. I've got a black one that looks just like that, but I've yet to be in a position to compare it to the classic gold one nor get my top loader out of storage to see if everything mates up properly.

To be sure, these are just dumb boards in properly molded plastic shells? Interesting. I had no clue it existed or was even necessary. So, Game Genie doesn't fit the toploader? Inwould have never guessed that.

Just to add (unless I've mistaken your post), this is definitely a top-loader specific game genie.  I recall many years ago somebody posting it with the box and manual/insert which clearly said top loader use only or something like that.

 

Nintendo altered the pin connector for the toploader, so the PCB in the Game Genie is too thick.

There was a picture awhile back of a GG that was absolutely trashed, because someone stuck it in a toploader and couldn't get it out again.

 

Well, this is a top-loader specific Game Genie adapter (shown by "This Adapter" on the rear of the unit, picture above), which is what's rare and expensive, as you had to write/mail away to Galoob to be able to get your hands on it.  I've heard that following this item, Galoob did at least one run of Game Genies which would fit properly into the top loader without the adapter and managed to pick up what appeared to be one of those last year.  Unfortunately, my regular gold Game Genie and top loader are stored in a spot where it's extraordinarily tough to get to them, so I haven't had a chance to break everything out together and compare it side by side.
 
While Nintendo did change the pin connector, I could have sworn that what the issue was with the original Game Genie and the top loader was that the housing for the GG was slightly thicker than the new cart slot and PCB slightly offset, so you had to wedge the GG in, and at a bit of an angle at that, which would cause the pin connector to actually break/pull up traces if you went to rock the GG around to try to work it back out.  I'm not saying that the original PCB isn't thicker than recommended for the top loader, just never heard of folks damaging their top loaders (permanently or otherwise) when using the original GG with it with the top shell off.