Yeah, but even before when they were pretty popular I rarely saw them, and I never saw a copy of Colosseum or XD. Hell, I've only seen like two Gamecubes my entire life and one of them wasn't in this country =))
Nah, I don't know him, but that's really nice of him to do so.

And I definitely agree, since at the heart of it the idea of owning a Pokemon also comes down to personal value, and shinies are just an upgraded version of that or something.