i think psp's have the same price here and abroad, mukhang mas mahal pa nga sa states kasi ikaw pa mismo ang magdadowngrade ng version kung sakali. dito kasi downgraded/upgraded na agad yung version pag nabili mo, so you could play iso games from your memory card. kung sa mall ka bibili ng psp, price range ata ng core/standard pack is 10k-11k, pag value pack tapos may kasamang 2gb/4gb, nasa 15k-16k.
as for the version, try to look for a psp with 3.03oe-c firmware version, pwede ka na maglaro using your memory card, copy ka na lang ng iso games para hindi ka na bibili ng umd games to play. don't buy the latest firmware version dahil mas mahirap ito idowngrade. masyadong madaming versions ng psp, pero common and 1.5, 2.8, 3.0, 3.03oe-c, 3.10oe-a. yung may mga "oe" are custom firmwares, hacked na yung software non kaya again, pwede na maglaro ng iso games without the need of the original umd game cd.
homebrew means custom applications created by developers/hackers, iso/cso is a file version of the umd, so parang vcd converted to avi.
psp version = firmware.
my advice, dito ka na lang bumili sa pinas, there is a risk of bricking (damaging) the firmware of your psp pag ikaw ang nagdowngrade/upgrade, that makes your psp unusable. mas madami pang freebies pag dito ka nakabili.