I read recently somewhere that you can get a shiny starter on Ruby/Sapp/Emerald by resetting, going to Birch's Bag, and then selecting the PokeBall, and if its not shiny, pressing "B" and reselecting the PokeBall over and over until the sprite shown IS shiny. Does this work? I want to know before I spend a couple o' hours on this task...

As with all shinies, it is 1/8192 chance of getting a shiny starter. That doesn't mean that if you reselect a starter 8192 times, you will get one.

For more info, click here...

http://www.psypokes.com/lab/shiny.php

I think he was asking whether the sprite shown when you select it (like in GSC where the sprite of the starter is shown and Elm goes, "Oh, do you want the blah blah blah?") shows as shiny if the Pokemon is a shiny.

And I'm pretty sure that doesn't work.

IIRC, you have to wait until you use the pokemon in battle to see whether it's shiny.

That is true. As such, here's what you can do if you want a Shiny Starter. Start a new game, get your starter, then get in a battle, perhaps the one with Poochyena where you're rescuing the Professor. As the battle starts, check if your starter is shiny. If it's not, restart the game, and restart the process all over again.

Be prepared for a long wait though, for the chances of your starter being shiny is still the exact same odds as that for finding any other Shiny, ie there's only a 1/8192 chance that your starter would be shiny.

i agree,
you get to see what pokemon it is,
but you dont see the stats, nature...etc.
which would be where you would be able to tell the difference of colour.

Some people *think* that they can determine shinyness from the pictures of the pokemon in the professor's bag.