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I'm considering selling my old blue 3DS to help fund a New 3DS. The 3DS I bought was the one that came bundled with Luigi's Mansion (an uninspired move on my part) and I want to remove my personal data from the console without deleting that game, to add to the value.
My question is: is this possible? Or when I registered my NNID with the console did I eliminate any chance of this working out?
This is not possible. When you set up a NNID on your system, the digital copy of Luigi's Mansion was linked to it. You can see this by deleting the game from your system, going to the eShop, and checking redownloadable software - Luigi's Mansion will be there. You can delete a NNID from a 3DS system, but it will also make any linked games unplayable, which would include Luigi's Mansion.
Your options here are to either sell the system as is with your NNID attached and then create a new one on your new system (not optimal if you want to keep your Mii, friend list, StreetPass data, or any of your other downloads), or perform a System Transfer, thus transferring Luigi's Mansion along with it.
Even if it's not possible through official means, there are other ways. There are ways to install custom firmware on every 3DS in existence, on any firmware version. This is very much unsupported by Nintendo (they condemn the practice) but it will enable you to unlink your NNID while keeping the game on the system.
I'm not a lawyer, but despite what Nintendo's EULA says, I'm pretty sure selling the console like this, at least in the United States, is legal due to first-sale doctrine. Just don't retain a copy of the game or redownload it from the eShop, unless you're okay with piracy and are willing to take the (probably extremely small) risk of being sued. Also, if you decide to go this route, you should explain in the product description what you did, just so the buyer is aware they won't be able to link the game to their own NNID.
See https://3ds.hacks.guide for instructions on installing custom firmware.
