Terminator02 i can't thank you enough for your post.
here is my story. i saw online that target was selling the 3ds xl for 150. so i ran over there tonight, risking the black friday crowd, and grabbed one. got back, booted it up, and found that it was running 6.1. i thought i would never be able to get one with 4.1-4.5, brand new, because this clearly showed you can't trust the "2012" date on the box. i came here looking for any relevant threads about the target sale to let everyone know the one i grabbed was 6.1, when i found your post. i checked my serial and it started with a 13. the target i shopped at actually had no lines, i was in and out in 10 minutes. so at 1am i figured i would brave going back to see if they had lower serial numbers. i found units starting with 1275 in the blues and units starting with 10xx in the reds. then i found 1 blue with 1231, and i really wanted a blue, so i grabbed it and ran up to exchange it. got in the car, booted it up, and it is running 4.4.
if i had not found your post i would have just waited and returned the 6.1 unit tomorrow and never went looking for a 3ds xl again. so thanks!!
for everyone who is not sure, i have a tip for opening them. one side of the box is sealed with two clear circular stickers, and the other side only has one. i found that if you try to pick them off that more often than not, you'll end up messing it up in a way that makes it look like you have removed it. now, some places won't care, or even look, but i've found that target has become really anal about their returns the past year. so what i did was pull the box apart to expand the side with the single clear plastic sticker as much as possible and then slit it with a razorblade. this gave me about a 1mm flap of clear sticker plastic on one side. if you need to reseal the box, just push it as close together as possible and use this 1mm flap to hold it. if you cut it clean and straight with a sharp razor, and then push it down firmly with your fingernail, you will reseal the box and no one will be able to tell.
-another world