The key fact here is that the Pokemon anime audience (which can to at least some extent broadly represent Pokemons popularity as a whole) declined by roughly 80% from its peak in late 1999 to its low in late 2000, before slowly recovering (but never again approaching its highs)
It's not really shocking, though
That does not mean every SAR or UR pays for the box
Journey Together will see big-name trainers from the video games come back in the new Trainer's Pokemon collection, such as N, Hop, and Iono
Trade-in credit may offer 10-20% value advantage over cash purchases
The only doubts I have on this card are that it doesn't synergize at all with FlickerFlicker, which isn't mandatory but it'd still be a pretty good point in its favor, and, most importantly, that it seems weird to place in a deck's curve