It Started With a Piece of Bubble Gum.

After that first trade, we took a trip to our local card shop, bought some Pokémon cards, and learned how to play together.

Our family already loved game nights, so Pokémon quickly became part of them. Before long, playing at home turned into visiting local card shops, attending events, and eventually competing in tournaments together.

But somewhere along the way, we realized Pokémon was giving our son much more than a hobby.

We watched his reading, math, strategy, and comprehension improve. The game also gave us opportunities to teach lessons that are harder to find in a textbook — sportsmanship, patience, confidence, helping newer players, handling wins and losses, and being part of a community.

Then we started thinking about how much more we could teach him through something he was already passionate about.

So we decided to give him the full 360° experience.

We bought him books about business, entrepreneurship, and advertising and started learning together again — this time about branding, marketing, inventory, buying and selling, finances, customer service, and graphic design.

He’s learning Photoshop to create flyers and marketing materials, helping us think through branding and presentation, and getting hands-on experience with the many different pieces that go into building and running a real business.

That became Xentric Collective.

Today, our son is involved in the actual operation of Xentric. He helps process online orders, prints invoices, packages cards, organizes outgoing orders, and continues learning how a real business works.

For now, the money the business earns goes right back into growing it and playing.

And we're still learning together.

Our next chapter is about something even bigger than selling cards: building community.

We want Xentric Collective to create opportunities for kids, parents, collectors, and players to meet people, learn the game, compete, trade, make friends, and experience the same joy Pokémon brought into our family.

Because for us, it was never really about the cards.

It was about everything the cards brought with them.

— The Xentric Family