I owned my first Game Boy Color for nearly half a year without owning any games, but I did borrow my cousin's Yellow Version so I had something to play until I got Gold for my birthday.
I then got a Cobalt Blue GBA SP for Christmas 2003 along with Sapphire (funny story, I actually opened Sapphire first, so I thought my parents had made a mistake and gotten me a game for the wrong system).
And most recently (about 8 months ago), I got a limited edition gold Zelda DS Lite with a copy of Heart Gold. I'm not that big of a Zelda fan, but I remember hearing that they were only sold in limited quantity, so I didn't mind paying $40 for it used.