So after much consideration and over thinking I finally pulled the trigger and picked up a 7800. I think I did fairly well in the deal as well, which makes me even happier. What I got was a complete 7800, with AC adapter, an A/V cable (which was bad, but not a big deal as I have better quality cables already), 2 Prolines, and 9 carts (2x PP2, Dig Dug, Xevious, Galaga, Asteroids, Food Fight, Ms. Pac-Man and Joust). Unfortunately looks like one of the PP2s and Food Fight may be dead. Of what I have Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga are the standouts.
My big question is what is the general going price for the more common/popular titles for the 7800? I generally prefer to buy in lots if I can, but I've found that 7800 games by themselves are a little scare lately on eBay. I have a fairly good idea as to how much to pay for 2600 stuff and A8 stuff -- but no clue on the 7800.
What are the must have titles for the 7800 -- homebrews included which is a large part of why I decided to get the 7800.
Is getting an A/V done really important. As far as I can tell the picture quality seems pretty good -- better than my XEGS using RF out. If I were to go that route are there preferred providers of that service -- not really confident I could do it myself, I know which end of the soldering iron to use, but after that not so much.
My overall impression after cleaning it up, and playing with it a bit last night is that the 7800 is a fairly nice machine. It feels higher quality than my 2600 Jr and the XEGS. Plus I think it is a good looks really good and still looks modern. I remember a neighbor of mine had a 7800 as a kid (which was supplanted by an NES less than a year later) and I don't remember the controllers being so bad. But after an hour or so my hand was hurting. The controllers I have feel tired, the stick is sloppy and the buttons feel worn and less than responsive. The few CX-40s I have, while 25+ years old don't feel anywhere near as bad. I think before I get anything else I am going to pick up a pair of NOS controllers off of eBay.