May 30, 2025

TRAINER'S EYE #162 - "The Battle Bond Between Shuriken and Flame" ft. Johto Jems

Show Notes
Transcript

What if your childhood hobby could become your future? For Cameron and Noah, two high school friends turned business partners, that “what if” became Johto Jems , a heartfelt blend of Pokémon nostalgia, late-night ambition, and vending table hustle.

In this episode, we follow the duo’s journey from a 3AM business plan to their very first card show. They share what it means to grow a brand from scratch, why Pokemon X and Y will always be their favorite era, and how meaningful moments like giving a free pack to a wide-eyed kid make the vendor grind worth it. Along the way, you’ll hear stories of Ash Greninja, Shiny Charizard, and the growing bond between two friends building something they can finally call their own.

Listen now and experience the kind of connection that can only happen between Trainers and Pokemon cards.

Business Owners Playlists:
🎧 Learn how Trainers turned fandom into business inspiration.

Hit play on the Business Owners playlist now!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

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Your next Pokemon adventure begins here!

WEBVTT

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We are Johto Jems,

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and this is our Pokemon story.

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Welcome to as the Pokeball Turns, where every voice, every journey, and every memory brings us closer to the world of Pokemon.

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I'm David Hernandez and I'm joined by a duo behind Johto Jems, A team bringing heart, hustle, and humor to the Pokemon community.

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One show at a time.

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Johto Jems.

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Welcome to as the Pokemon Ball Turns.

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Thank you so much for having us on.

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Absolutely.

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And thank y'all for coming on.

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I have a soft spot for vendors'cause I started doing vendor events myself and it's such a unique world where you kind of are like a small business in a sense, but you're also with other small businesses in a one closed area.

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And I kind of just wanna start with this question.

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You know, a lot of great journeys, they start with a simple, what if.

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What was the conversation y'all two had or the moment where Johto Jems took shape.

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So it was actually a, a pretty funny story.

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it wasn't really a conversation.

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We kind of had, it just kind of sparked.

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So basically, I met him at my, around freshman year of high school and we weren't very close, but recently we came back together.

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It was really good friends.

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And at like three in the morning, I sent him a giant business plan that I created out of nowhere.

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And I was like, we should create a business.

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And he was like.

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He was like, nah, man, not right now.

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And then that's where, kind of where it died down.

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But then we went to collect Con Houston and after we left, he looked at me and he was just like, I wanna do this.

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I want this to happen and I want this to be something that we do for the rest of our life.

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And I was like, let's do it.

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And that's kind of where it kinds kinda, where it all started, honestly.

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Yeah, I Collect-a-con like just seeing everybody like.

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the way the social interaction, the way the business was turning through what I loved as well, something I was interested in.

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It was, it was just inspirational to see that, and it was something I wanted to pursue.

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I.

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What was the bit about specifically collect I guess maybe changed your mind from, ah, this is not a good idea to, oh, let's do this.

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Like do you remember?

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Anything significant that stuck out?

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I think it was the seeing people our age,'cause me and Cameron are still in high school, right?

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And seeing people around like, you know, 1918 going out there and really, you know, trying to do something rather than just, you know, staying at home, playing video games, going out.

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But they're trying to, you know, make something out of something that they love and it's a brand and something that they can carry around.

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And that's something that inspired me to want to do this as well because I want something that I can say is me and having Johto Jems is, it's honestly amazing.

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Now, Cam, back to you real quick.

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'cause you sent this guy a message at 3:00 AM in the morning, a business plan, and I gotta ask like, why did you feel the urge to send it right then and there?

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so we worked together at the same job at retirement Center and basically we got back from a shift and we were just both super tired, but like I.

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I like was up one night because I had Johto Jems originally, it was a little TikTok shop thing.

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I was running by myself before Noah, but it wasn't the same Johto Jems.

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It was spelled differently.

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It had a whole different like, demeanor to it.

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It really wasn't the same.

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but like I take business classes in high school and things like that.

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So I've still taught myself business.

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I ran a, uh, a, like a catering cookie business I used to sell things online, like I've been very much into entrepreneurship and sales, my whole, my whole life.

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So I kind of already have like a whole, the whole thing behind business plans and, all teams like business.

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So like in the middle of the night I was like, watching this video.

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It, this is where this struck for me to go back in the Pokemon was Coop's collection on TikTok.

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I saw him and I was I wanna do this.

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So again, at like two 30 in the morning, I created a business plan.

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Took me about an hour and a half, two hours.

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I sent it to him and I was like, bro.

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Read this and tell me this doesn't sound fire.

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And then that's where, that's kind of like where it sparked.

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Now on that note, because you said you basically kind of grew up with business, like it's in your blood basically.

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And you know, you mentioned taking classes and all that.

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What was some of the earliest lessons about running something of your own and how does that show up now and how you operate?

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Joe, do gyms.

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So obviously everybody wants to not have a boss.

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Everybody wants to do things under their own, like impression and everything.

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You know, That's kind of where it first happened.

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That's just kind of everybody's perspective in entrepreneurship and things like that.

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But I found like a passion in sales.

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Like, it's funny, it's, it's just gonna sound stupid, but like, as a kid, I used to, like, during like the hot summer days, I'd go around my neighborhood and sell water bottles for obnoxiously high prices.

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I was six.

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Didn't know the best, but you can say it was doing sales and sophomore year, freshman year of high school, I was baking cookies at home with, uh, recipes that I created and I would go around like, the local neighborhood and sell them to people for pretty good prices, honestly.

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'cause I was using high tier ingredients to create like, really good product.

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And it worked for a while.

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I was, I was bringing in a really good flow.

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But the thing was, is that I actually, um.

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Things happened in life and, you know, I, I had to step away from that.

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But then I came back.

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Whenever I saw how big Pokemon was getting, I was already collecting it.

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I had got back into it before the big craze, but then I saw vending and I was like, this is my chance to, to bring business, my, like, my business passion back into a really good way.

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Because I've always wanted to do something in business.

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I've always wanted to have my own business.

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If it, at first it was a kitchen, I wanted to own my own restaurant.

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other things like that.

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And then this is where it's kind of ended as now I wanna have like a card shop for my own.

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Now, you mentioned how you were getting back into Pokemon.

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What was your early experience with Pokemon and how did that, come into you doing Johto Jems at some point?

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I started collecting Pokemon at the age of four.

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So my mom was getting me very late, black and white sets from the toys Rush.

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She'd go wait in lines for them because about that time, Pokemon was pretty big, or the trading party game was pretty big.

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And my time period where I collected the most was the Pokemon XY era, which was, I Will Stand, is the best era in Pokemon.

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argue with the Wall, don't care.

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Anyways.

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collecting, that's like where my big collecting was.

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All I remember is that I would like reach in my pockets and I would have Mega Charizard X cards in there and they would get run through the, the washing machine and dryer machine because you know, as a kid you didn't care about condition or worth or none of that.

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'cause at the time they really didn't have much worth, like the big investment and all that didn't happen until 2020.

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But as a kid, collecting Pokemon was the coolest thing I could have done.

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I used to trade them in school.

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I definitely get scammed a lot, but, Trading cars in class was always super fun and I would wait in lines to toys us at very late nights or very early mornings for the newest sets.

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So yeah, I've always been around Pokemon my whole life.

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Literally one of the first shows I've ever watched was the anime, I think it was the Diamond and Pearl Anime.

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so I've always been around Pokemon my entire life, and I grew out of it for a while, and then I came back into it.

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You know what's interesting is that no matter when we started playing Pokemon, there's always that story where somebody leaves the Charizard card in their pocket and the laundry.

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I don't know what is about Charizard, but it just goes through so much abuse.

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Maybe that's why it's so valuable.

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I don't know, but I.

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Noah, what about you?

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What's your experience with Pokemon?

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Let's start there.

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What's your early experience?

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Honestly, as far back as I can remember, I've always been collecting Pokemon, whether it be on the Ds, on the trading card game.

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I've loved Pokemon.

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I don't actually remember when it started, but I do remember collecting the cards and I have to agree with my business partner on this.

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One XY will always be the best era.

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I remember buying flash fire for five bucks.

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Seeing the prices nowadays makes me insane.

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Like absolutely crazy.

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But as far back as I can remember, I remember playing Omega Ruby.

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I remember playing Ruby Pearl.

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All those Collecting at Toys R Us.

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I remember waiting in line for those.

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I remember the huge boxes that you could get for super like cheap nowadays, but they're super expensive now.

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You said you played the video games.

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What did you enjoy about playing the video games at that time?

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Do you remember any of them?

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Honestly, the one thing that stuck out to me about Pokemon was there was so many hidden secrets that you would just stumble onto instead of wanting to find, or, you know, looking up a YouTube video about how to find something.

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'cause maybe back then we didn't, you know, know to look it up or want to find it in that way.

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We would just stumble across it and, you know.

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Finding a secret path or cutting a tree.

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You weren't supposed to.

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Finding a secret path and it leading on to something amazing that you tell your friends about the next day.

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There was just something so magical about that in Pokemon for me.

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I can see that.

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I always enjoy.

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That's why I always try to.

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Click everything whenever I would go to town, because I always never knew what would lead to something.

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Like if I click, if I talked to this lady or this guy, like where they gave me on adventure, where they gave me a Pokemon, then that's what always kind of I enjoyed the most about the games.

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'cause you never knew where that conversation could lead to something else, you know?

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As somebody who hated reading, growing up, ever since I started playing Pokemon and like Dark Souls, you gotta pay attention now.

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And very important to check every corner, every nook and cranny.

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There could always be something I.

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Now, y'all both said something the same.

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Y'all both agreed on this one point that Pokemon X and Y was the best out of anything, and I want to get y'all's opinions on from both of y'all.

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What is it about that set that MBS makes it stand out compared to some of the others?

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Honestly, I would have to say the gimmick for X and y like it.

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It's the greatest for what we have right now.

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Like between VMAXs, Gigantamaxing, Terrastilization.

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it doesn't get any better than Megas like Mega Charizard, Mega Aerodactyl, Mega Aggron,.

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Mega rayquaza.

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Don't forget about Primal Kyogre, Primal Groudon these new forms.

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They were, they were crazy.

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And seeing them in the card variance with, with the Japanese text, it was just, it was something so new and magical.

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It was captivating.

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So I have to agree with them is that it's got the best gimmick.

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Uh, I understand.

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Maybe competitive wise.

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Competitive wise, it wasn't the best gimmick, the newest gimmick, Tara, is actually VBAs gimmick, I guess, or it's the most balanced one, but nobody.

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Cares as someone who mainly watched the anime more than competitively playing the games, because when I play the games or I don't put do like that, but when I was a kid and I would play the games, it's over level your starter and then go and see how far you go.

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That's how it goes.

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But, mega evolution was the coolest thing for me.

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Specifically, my favorite mega evolution wasn't mega, it was the Ash Greninja.

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I am the craziest Ash fan or like Greninja fan ever.

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So seeing the anime, like watching him hit battle bond for the first time was probably the coolest thing ever.

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I have a Greninja pop figure signed by that Ashes voice actor.

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I collect all the cards.

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I'm on the mission to collect every printed greninja card that's ever released.

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I have the Ash Greninja card, all of these super cool cards, and I'm sad that they're rec conning ash greninja completely, but.

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Hopefully they do him justice, what his mega evolution.

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I understand the game is super, super easy and you can pretty much just fly by with like Greninja and Charizard and you know,'cause it basically, and Lucario'cause it hands you a free Lucario.

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But it was probably the easiest game that had put people into the game and the hobby and all that because a lot of people grew up like.

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Me, Noah's age, demographic X and Y was their first introduction, or black and white too, and x and y.

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Making it the easiest game was probably the smartest decision because then it kept people for the long run, you know?

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And I started personally with black and white too.

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That was my first game.

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I'm a Tepig lover, by the way.

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Emboar is my goat.

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But yeah, like X and Y would definitely be my favorite.

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And I still rewatch X and Y when I get the chance.

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'cause that anime was the most mature version of Ash and was just the most well-written anime.

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I had a follow up question'cause you mentioned how you love Ash Greninja, that that's your, it sounds like that's your favorite Pokemon potentially.

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definitely.

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Oh it is.

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Okay.

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What is it about, I guess, Ash Greninja that you enjoy?

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compared to maybe some of his other Pokemon or other Pokemon that are out there?

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See, if it wasn't for the XY anime, Greninja wouldn't be as popular.

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To me, it's the anime that really ride like rose the.

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Pokemon up for me because having Froakie's backstory, being that he chose the starter, that starter didn't choose him, is the coolest thing ever.

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His first screen time was, blocking an attack for Ash after not even being Ash's Pokemon.

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And every evolution that he had was so cool.

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When he first involved into Frogadier, it was the coolest thing ever.

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He was stuck under the rubble and he went crazy.

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and I think it was the eighth Gym battle.

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It was a seventh.

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It was a seventh gen battle.

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they redid the father son Kami haw thing, but with ash and Frogadier, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever.

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When he finally evolved in the Greninja'cause in the animate, Frogadier or like Greninja rival was another greninja from like Ash's Greninja, greninja type of thing.

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I don't know how to explain it, but that greninja became fodder so fast the second that Frogadier evolved because he went battle bond instantly and just wiped every single evil Pokemon that was there within like five seconds.

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And he should have won the Kalos finals.

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I'll stand on that.

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That was, that was robbed.

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He got robbed Charizard was fodder.

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I don't care, But the whole point is that the anime is what made Greninja be my favorite Pokemon.

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And without the anime, it would definitely, it probably would've been Infernape because of his backstory.

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Since we're on favorite Pokemon Noah, what's your favorite Pokemon?

00:13:30.756 --> 00:13:33.517
I am amazed that you brought this up.

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Right now my favorite Pokemon is Charizard, actually, and specifically Mega Charziard X, actually, so that is even more hilarious.

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Is, and that

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Charizard X like that's your favorite.

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I would have to say specifically Shiny Charziard.

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Fair

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have a thing for like, you know, black dragons, like shiny rayquaza, shiny Charizard, Mega Charizard X.

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Those have to be top three.

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Wow.

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How did it feel when he was saying like, oh, uh, Greninja should have won against

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was

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feel a little Yeah.

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amazing.

00:14:06.707 --> 00:14:07.488
Oh my gosh.

00:14:07.908 --> 00:14:09.847
The euphoria I feel right now.

00:14:10.294 --> 00:14:16.128
But that one kick that Ash Greninja did to Bro's Dome that one time that was tough.

00:14:16.128 --> 00:14:16.847
I can't lie.

00:14:17.326 --> 00:14:18.947
Do you have like a Charizard collection?

00:14:18.947 --> 00:14:22.517
I assume, like since you're a card collector, do you try to dive into that or you kind

00:14:22.562 --> 00:14:28.802
I actually, I actually did, I had the ones from Champions Path.

00:14:28.802 --> 00:14:30.572
I had the Aldean Fates one.

00:14:30.961 --> 00:14:35.371
I had pretty much every shiny Charizard card, the char, the shiny VM Max one.

00:14:35.851 --> 00:14:40.642
But I put my binder on top of Cameron's car and I forgot to grab it.

00:14:40.642 --> 00:14:44.572
I'm pretty I we sped off and it might have fallen off, but.

00:14:45.086 --> 00:14:49.826
To New beginnings and we're gonna rebuild it, and it's just gonna be a part of the journey now.

00:14:50.267 --> 00:14:54.616
Now Cam, I wanna go back to you'cause you mentioned how you had collectibles of your favorite Pokemon.

00:14:54.976 --> 00:14:58.817
I want to ask like what's one I guess that means the most to you, and what's the story behind it?

00:14:59.672 --> 00:15:03.451
The Greninja SIR CK illustration layer from Twilight Masquerade.

00:15:03.751 --> 00:15:05.461
That one specifically has a lot of.

00:15:05.488 --> 00:15:07.888
Sentimental value behind it because of what I had to go through.

00:15:08.231 --> 00:15:13.361
the set that it's from, Twilight Masquerade has ridiculous pull rates, meaning it's stupid, hard to pull it.

00:15:13.841 --> 00:15:17.142
And I maybe invested 700 plus dollars for the card.

00:15:17.142 --> 00:15:19.392
By the way, the card's like three 50 raw.

00:15:19.631 --> 00:15:24.721
and I never pulled it, so I had to swallow my pride and buy the card because.

00:15:24.886 --> 00:15:25.576
You never pulled it.

00:15:25.576 --> 00:15:26.716
You just bought it individually.

00:15:27.062 --> 00:15:29.282
I wanted to pull it, like I, I made it my mission.

00:15:29.282 --> 00:15:36.871
Every time I went to our favorite card shop, we'd, I would always buy like a three pack blister or a ETB and try to open it, but I just never could pull it.

00:15:36.871 --> 00:15:38.672
So I had to swallow my pride and buy it.

00:15:38.998 --> 00:15:48.272
But, my second, like most valuable, or like the card that means the most to me is probably my Ash Greninja's card, because I was at Collect Con, the one where we decided that Johto Jems should become a thing.

00:15:48.587 --> 00:15:52.201
I went to like 40 plus vendor tables asking for the card.

00:15:52.548 --> 00:15:57.197
after like the 50th table, I found it and it was, it was such a euphoric feeling.

00:15:57.658 --> 00:16:02.422
Now going back to the first one, you know, it's a tough decision to be able to buy the card individually.

00:16:02.422 --> 00:16:05.392
A lot of people who collect the TCG, they prefer to pull it.

00:16:05.392 --> 00:16:08.001
They love that feeling to finally get what they're chasing.

00:16:08.422 --> 00:16:11.751
What was the conversation you had with yourself to where it went from?

00:16:11.991 --> 00:16:17.152
I'd rather try to pull it to where I'd rather just go ahead and close this chapter and go ahead and just buy the car individually.

00:16:17.152 --> 00:16:18.621
Was it difficult for you to kind of do that?

00:16:19.065 --> 00:16:23.754
Yeah, it took me a really long time because I was saying that to Noah for a couple months that I was just gonna out ride by.

00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:25.500
The card and then I would keep buying the packs.

00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:35.783
But it was the fact that I bought a whole booster box and countless ETBs three pack blisters, and I never even pulled a top 10 card from the set it was my time that I was like, I can't do this anymore.

00:16:35.783 --> 00:16:39.113
Like I financially cannot invest this into the set anymore.

00:16:39.472 --> 00:16:43.493
So it was time to just outright buy the card and just move on and see what else I can get.

00:16:43.523 --> 00:16:50.482
'cause I had a whole, I had no time to just be chasing for one card when there's 80 4K Ninja cards that I need to go after.

00:16:51.457 --> 00:16:52.597
Uh, I mean, it could be worse.

00:16:52.597 --> 00:16:53.707
Could be chasing after Eevee.

00:16:53.918 --> 00:16:55.238
There's like 500 of those.

00:16:57.023 --> 00:16:58.013
Are like, bro, over

00:16:58.118 --> 00:17:00.457
he, he's got the expensive property between all of us.

00:17:00.841 --> 00:17:02.131
And I gotta restart them

00:17:02.152 --> 00:17:03.261
yeah, you gotta restart them all.

00:17:03.322 --> 00:17:04.221
Oh my gosh, dude.

00:17:04.531 --> 00:17:05.071
poor guy.

00:17:05.397 --> 00:17:13.137
My last question just in regards to that, because even after you decided to make the decision to buy it individually, you still had to go to 50 vendor tables just to find the card.

00:17:13.557 --> 00:17:19.407
Like was it difficult just to go and ask like over and over the same question and kind of feel the feel like, how'd you stay motivated through that?

00:17:19.856 --> 00:17:22.527
It was just, I knew somebody there had to have it.

00:17:22.527 --> 00:17:28.317
It was the biggest, it's one of the biggest events in the states and no, somebody had to have had it.

00:17:28.826 --> 00:17:34.106
And the amount of people that brought out the wrong card, I was like, do y'all have the Ash Greninja promo card?

00:17:34.106 --> 00:17:35.997
And they would think, I'm talking about another promo card.

00:17:36.057 --> 00:17:37.767
And I'd be like, I already have this one man.

00:17:37.767 --> 00:17:42.237
And that would keep, I would've to like speed, walk through people and move and basically haul ass to get there.

00:17:42.237 --> 00:17:42.836
And.

00:17:43.122 --> 00:17:48.721
When I finally found it, it was a great feeling because he had actually like two copies of them, which I was shocked.

00:17:48.721 --> 00:17:51.392
I was like, everybody here has zero copies and you had two.

00:17:51.926 --> 00:17:58.076
Noah, for you, you know, you're starting a collection from scratch and for Charizard no less.

00:17:58.737 --> 00:18:02.636
I don't even know what to say about that, but I guess, what's the first card you wanna start your collection?

00:18:02.636 --> 00:18:04.227
What's a Charizard card that you enjoy?

00:18:04.227 --> 00:18:05.606
Out of all the ones that are available, I.

00:18:06.262 --> 00:18:19.116
I think honestly, I'm just gonna start off with a wham and just purchase a PS A 10 SIR ARD from Paldean Fates, just to reward myself because you know, I lost the binder and.

00:18:19.432 --> 00:18:20.903
I guess I deserve it in a way.

00:18:20.903 --> 00:18:21.893
I feel like I do.

00:18:22.282 --> 00:18:29.182
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna splurge a little and I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna restart it with, with a PSA 10, just, but it'll be my first ever slab.

00:18:29.633 --> 00:18:35.843
So it'll be, it'll be a real set piece and I'll get one of those cases that I've seen, it's card shows.

00:18:36.262 --> 00:18:41.957
I've seen a lot of people with really cool, like 3D printed ones and a lot of the cool like gradient cases.

00:18:41.957 --> 00:18:44.866
So I, I might go a little crazy with that.

00:18:44.866 --> 00:18:47.717
Maybe even get a necklace and wear it around like see.

00:18:48.182 --> 00:18:48.211
Okay.

00:20:18.993 --> 00:20:28.509
So eventually, you know, y'all come together, y'all start Johto Jems, which is what y'all are now, and my first question would be like, what is Johto Jems and how did that name come about?

00:20:28.969 --> 00:20:32.189
So Johto Gems was first a thing before Noah.

00:20:32.189 --> 00:20:33.028
It was just me.

00:20:33.028 --> 00:20:38.459
It was a TikTok shop I was running where I was selling packs and things I had, and it was spelled completely different.

00:20:38.765 --> 00:20:41.404
we kind of want it to be different and more unique compared to other vendors.

00:20:41.404 --> 00:20:45.365
'cause when you look in other Pokemon content creators, they always have the same thing in their names.

00:20:45.365 --> 00:20:51.791
Pokey, insert name, something TCG something collects, you know, everything always has to have something Poke in it.

00:20:51.791 --> 00:20:52.481
So we were like.

00:20:52.781 --> 00:20:56.788
Let's put in one of the regions from the game and let's, let's try to rhyme it with something.

00:20:56.788 --> 00:21:04.338
So our three options before we had it fully, it was Kanto collectibles, I think it was Kalos Collectibles, I think it was one of the two.

00:21:04.729 --> 00:21:05.878
And then Johto Jems.

00:21:06.378 --> 00:21:08.739
But we asked around and Johto Jems.

00:21:08.739 --> 00:21:10.179
Slid off the tongue perfectly.

00:21:10.179 --> 00:21:15.729
We all, we still ask for people's opinions to this day, even though we're basically fully committed to the name, everybody loves the name.

00:21:16.058 --> 00:21:19.749
When they look at our table, they love the name and they're like, this name is so cool.

00:21:19.929 --> 00:21:24.398
It, it just fits so perfect and we, it feels super, it's super nice to know

00:21:24.594 --> 00:21:28.314
I feel called out'cause I'm As The Pokeball Turns, so it's like I'm fit a stereotypical.

00:21:29.763 --> 00:21:38.673
No, I guess it's kind of different whenever you're like podcasting, like obviously you need to put Pokemon in the name, but like all vendors that kind of have the same names, and I'm not judging, I'm not hating.

00:21:38.673 --> 00:21:38.943
I'm just

00:21:39.003 --> 00:21:42.304
No, let's judge, let's hate, let's do a rating of all the pokey stuff out there.

00:21:42.304 --> 00:21:43.713
I would love to do stuff like that.

00:21:44.104 --> 00:21:47.703
All y'all mean poke, Mars, pokey collectibles, pokey cards.

00:21:48.183 --> 00:21:49.219
Y'all gotta be more creative out there.

00:21:49.249 --> 00:21:49.538
Okay.

00:21:51.048 --> 00:21:52.433
Called out Pokey Rev.

00:21:52.784 --> 00:21:53.074
Jeez.

00:21:53.388 --> 00:21:57.169
Yeah, one of the top Pokemon YouTubers voters got called out.

00:21:57.213 --> 00:21:57.784
my podcast.

00:21:57.784 --> 00:21:58.114
Come on.

00:21:58.263 --> 00:22:02.644
So, Oh, anyway, on that note, so you know you got Johto Jems, and you know, y'all are finally coming together.

00:22:02.644 --> 00:22:07.473
Y'all decide, you know, to come back after collect account, I believe is when your business partner comes in.

00:22:07.923 --> 00:22:14.584
Y'all's first vendor experience was actually called Houston Cards and Collectibles, and I wanna know, what was your first experience as vendors like

00:22:15.034 --> 00:22:17.328
Honestly, the the first experience.

00:22:17.642 --> 00:22:31.038
that show probably had to be, maybe not financially, but just experience wise, like our best show yet, like being there in person behind the table rather than in front of it, trying to buy something.

00:22:31.608 --> 00:22:36.378
It was just an amazing feeling, being able to talk to so many people, especially for.

00:22:36.416 --> 00:22:42.146
People like me and Cameron, you know, our, our generation, whenever we went through COVID, we were out of school for a while.

00:22:42.146 --> 00:22:45.356
We didn't, you know, have a lot of social interactions.

00:22:45.356 --> 00:23:08.354
So to be able to like constantly just be talking and talking and talking and talking, I I had a really big social battery saved up and it was, it's really nice to be able to just talk and talk and talk and talk and meet new people and just, constantly be in a cycle of over and over and over again with people and just seeing how everybody can be a new person and everybody can be in a different mood, same mood.

00:23:08.804 --> 00:23:12.614
And it was just super unique and I, I just, I loved the experience.

00:23:13.291 --> 00:23:16.412
I'd probably say it was our second best card show.

00:23:16.436 --> 00:23:25.007
fin or like, experience wise, our second one takes it for me, So yeah, eTown car show was, was exactly what I wanted vening to be.

00:23:25.396 --> 00:23:30.166
Sunday was definitely a slower day, mainly because it rained, so it had a good reason to be slow.

00:23:30.797 --> 00:23:34.426
But day one, Saturday was truly remarkable.

00:23:34.457 --> 00:23:34.819
Like.

00:23:34.819 --> 00:23:36.859
The people we met was, was awesome.

00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:44.009
like our first couple deals, the people were super cool and they were, they were loving our table'cause we got two tables'cause they was on deal.

00:23:44.009 --> 00:23:45.839
It was like on, on sale or something.

00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:52.412
So we had, not much product, but we had a lot of space to be able to move around and just honestly the vendors were the best thing about it.

00:23:52.730 --> 00:23:54.441
all our neighbor was super cool.

00:23:54.590 --> 00:23:56.721
Everybody around us was just super awesome.

00:23:56.931 --> 00:23:58.667
And at that show I met.

00:23:58.667 --> 00:24:02.327
One of, now one of my best like vendor buddies, uh, the pokey twin shop.

00:24:02.634 --> 00:24:16.134
Those guys are like the goats and they were super helpful for our vendor journey, have been helping us throughout the way and they're always, going talking to them at shows'cause they're always at every show that we're at and just always chopping it up with them and they're super cool.

00:24:16.590 --> 00:24:25.374
So you said like the vendors were the best experience about your first show, you know, what advice did they give to y'all when y'all were attending your first show that left an impression on y'all?

00:24:25.374 --> 00:24:25.433
I.

00:24:25.810 --> 00:24:31.510
So the difference between all of us, or between me and Noah and the vendors are our age gap.

00:24:31.750 --> 00:24:34.736
Most of these people have started vending after they've made their money.

00:24:35.256 --> 00:24:35.375
I.

00:24:35.375 --> 00:24:40.705
So they've worked full-time jobs, full-time careers and have made money so they'd be able to splurge and invest in high tier cards.

00:24:40.766 --> 00:24:46.787
Unlike me and Noah, where we work part-time jobs, for not much an hour type of type of thing.

00:24:47.073 --> 00:24:48.393
so we have less to work with.

00:24:48.721 --> 00:24:55.633
So when we go to these events, we make sure that networking and making people's day is our best, like work because I know that we can do that.

00:24:56.502 --> 00:24:58.303
Better than anybody else at these shows.

00:24:58.663 --> 00:25:04.253
Maybe we can't sell the highest cards, but we damn well could make someone's day and make someone's whole week, actually.

00:25:04.614 --> 00:25:09.692
So I'd say that the advice the vendors gave us is to just don't get jealous.

00:25:09.902 --> 00:25:13.426
Don't get unmotivated because we have higher tier cards than you.

00:25:13.457 --> 00:25:14.446
It'll come in time.

00:25:14.807 --> 00:25:18.170
Just keep working at it and with how y'all are going.

00:25:18.491 --> 00:25:22.721
If y'all just keep promoting yourselves, eventually it'll go big and it'll be so worth it.

00:25:23.144 --> 00:25:25.574
Now you said you, you enjoyed the second vending show y'all attended.

00:25:25.993 --> 00:25:28.874
Tell me about it and what was it about that you preferred The second one over?

00:25:28.874 --> 00:25:29.384
The first one.

00:25:29.852 --> 00:25:34.767
So when we went into the show, we were a little bit concerned because these guys run shows at the W.

00:25:35.102 --> 00:25:37.471
So like every weekend they run shows.

00:25:37.771 --> 00:25:40.412
Our second car show again, they, they run shows like every weekend.

00:25:40.412 --> 00:25:44.882
They had like 14 K followers, so we were a little bit concerned'cause they weren't really marketing the show.

00:25:45.298 --> 00:25:50.488
the game changer behind the show was that it was free entry, no cost all weekend.

00:25:50.788 --> 00:25:51.867
It was$0.

00:25:52.137 --> 00:25:56.817
and it was also in a smaller venue, a really nice hotel that me and Noah were contemplating staying in.

00:25:57.373 --> 00:26:03.188
But, we got there and man, Saturday was, the greatest thing because the game changer for us was changing our gimmick.

00:26:03.607 --> 00:26:06.847
So the thing is about vendors is that you gotta have a gimmick to succeed.

00:26:06.847 --> 00:26:12.067
And our gimmick was to spin the wheel, which our H Town card show we, we went about it wrong.

00:26:12.067 --> 00:26:17.564
So instead of what we do now, we were charging people five bucks to spin the wheel and it was very okay.

00:26:17.564 --> 00:26:17.844
Prizes.

00:26:18.598 --> 00:26:21.305
But our second card show, we changed it to you.

00:26:21.305 --> 00:26:25.265
Give us a follow on Instagram and you can spin the wheel and oh my goodness.

00:26:25.265 --> 00:26:26.224
That was a game changer.

00:26:26.564 --> 00:26:32.436
We jumped like two to 300 followers that weekend and people were having so much fun at our table.

00:26:32.707 --> 00:26:37.027
the word got passed around that we were giving out free packs'cause that's what one of the rewards was on the wheel.

00:26:37.297 --> 00:26:39.336
And people were coming line up to spin this.

00:26:39.336 --> 00:26:43.301
We had one guy follow us on five different alt accounts to spin our wheel.

00:26:43.838 --> 00:26:47.108
We were all ripping packs and having packed battles at the table.

00:26:47.528 --> 00:26:50.798
It was, it was truly the greatest event, and I think the best thing about it was.

00:26:51.413 --> 00:26:59.203
say actually for Noah, I kind of like walked in on this was a little kid came by our table, his name's Trevor and he's like a big Charizard fan.

00:26:59.203 --> 00:27:05.114
And him and Noah were talking about Charizards and the little kid asked us for a picture and it was like the most wholesome thing ever.

00:27:05.114 --> 00:27:08.624
'cause we have like a really like high quality picture of all three of us together.

00:27:08.624 --> 00:27:11.354
And it was just a great, it was a great experience.

00:27:11.624 --> 00:27:12.703
Really good, really good.

00:27:13.009 --> 00:27:14.971
it, it almost had me tearing up because like.

00:27:14.971 --> 00:27:23.362
He ended up being like, now he's like one of our biggest supporters ever and we're so grateful for that guy and his dad is also super, super cool to us.

00:27:23.689 --> 00:27:25.969
But now the cards and Mor tour event was really good.

00:27:25.969 --> 00:27:29.449
Financially and experience wise it was, it was the best event.

00:27:29.970 --> 00:27:46.753
From the second card show, honestly, whenever Trevor came to our, table with his father and he met us and he asked us for a picture, it was something that, like, growing up, I've always watched, you know, YouTubers like Unlisted Leaf was one of my favorite YouTubers ever growing up.

00:27:47.263 --> 00:27:48.493
Like his videos.

00:27:48.511 --> 00:27:52.082