I remember buying it in middle school (2002-2005) just that it would have been some time before the gallery feature was released because I remember trying to show my friends and accidentally pricing them at 12356 instead of 123456 and they got bought immediately by somebody who was kind enough to sell me back for the same price. But I can't find when galleries were released to date it.
Long story long, I think I spent about 100k on each piece, I don't think there was any big discrepancy in prices between pieces, either.
[edit] THis is more Y4-7, but it's the earliest personal experience I had with it.