Being a Pokemon fan between 2002-2003 sure was an interesting time given that it was the lowest point of the franchise.

>Pokemania was dead, pokemon may never had been truly unpopular, but these years were without a doubt a time where it had the least popularity
>pokemon center in new york opens at the worst possible time, the fad was over
>Initial fanbase entering their teen years and now pokemon was just a baby nerdy thing and you were a fag if you were still playing it
>wizards of the coast was neglecting and trying to kill off the tcg in the west so most players were abandoning it for Yugioh or magic
>still buying cards, but most people weren't, so many missed those e-card sets which are now pretty rare
>in fact, pokemon was now being written off as a dead fad and probably the cheapest time to buy pokemon cards and merch since no one wanted them anymore
>similar story in japan with the controversial cardback art change and jumping from gimmick to gimmick with the e-card reader thing that caused prices to fall and people to abandon it
>johto anime lost most of its viewers out of sheer boredom
>learning there was no way to transfer old pokemon into the new pokemon advance games just led more fans to drop out

its pretty amazing how Pokemon was able to rebound a few years later after experiencing things that would kill off most franchises.