About Us

What started as a rip and ship shop on Tik Tok has grown into so much more. A business that started small and continues to grow from an online presence to a physical storefront, learn more about our story from one of our founders and what inspires us at Ninjacat Card Shop!

“Previously, [Ninjacat Card Shop] had only been a rip and ship stream on Tik Tok. The stream will stay, we have a community built with amazing people all over the world. Ask any member of that community, and they’ll tell you the reason I started the stream was to open a physical location in the city I’m most familiar with.

I’ve been in Naperville for 32 years of my life, had tremendous losses throughout this time, from both of my parents, to the rest of my extended family to my best friend. I’ve had amazing wins, marrying my wonderful wife and becoming a parent to three kids, learning and thriving in a family environment and picking up friends along the way that would become as close as family.

Sometime before the pandemic, my kids got me into Pokémon Go. This will forever be my first love! After they grew tired of it, I kept playing, and found a great community in Naperville and the surrounding areas to play with. A couple years later, I started to become interested in Pokémon cards-I had been an avid collector of baseball cards as a kid, I got it from my dad.

I started collecting, and realized that ripping and opening with other people on stream was a great way to enjoy the hobby, but still stay safe during the pandemic. While the hype may have died down after lockdown, streaming card breaks is still beneficial for consumers who can’t get to stores, don’t have time or don’t live in an area where cards are easy to find. So I started streaming myself, and building a community through Discord and Tik Tok live streams. A side business, if you will.

I became interested in Japanese cards, as well, and one of my suppliers was actually local to me! This community of people, whether they were on the procurement side, in the stream or PoGo players became my tribe. From all the support of the PokeTok community, my five year plan to open a store in Naperville became an 18 month reality. That local Japanese supplier? He’s now my business partner in this venture. The most enthusiastic collector I’ve ever run into that wandered into my stream one early month when I only had 5-10 viewers? A bridesmaid in my wife and my 10 year vow renewal this year. The woman I reached out to when I first had an interest in learning about Pokemon cards and The Card Game (TCG)? My wife’s maid of honor.

I tell you all this because I want you to know that THIS. STORE. IS. FOR. YOU. For us. We want you to come buy packs, sure, but what we really want is for you to sit down with us and rip them! We want you to bring in your collections to share. Bring in some of your own packs to rip with your friends. Play One Piece, or DND, or ATLA or board games or host a board meeting for your non-profit. We want you to be able to stream to an audience while you do a personal rip, if you’re curious about streaming! We want you to come to trade Pokémon in the video games or PoGo, and bring your switch and vibe out.

We want you to order from our sealed site when you don’t want to drive in the snow, or you’re having a tough week, so you can still stay engaged in your hobby. We want you to be able to buy the single cards you need to build a deck, or come to a trade night to find the one card you want for your personal collection. We want to bridge the gap for the Japanese collectors that have never had the opportunity to buy a box under $100.
And we want you all to be in on what’s going on, from the trashed space and new ceiling seen in these photos, all the way up to when we’re open and we’re all together.

ALWAYS ask us questions, leave ideas in the comments, post your pulls and tell us what your dream community looks like. And we’ll always keep you in the loop.”

• Ninjacat (Cathy Cowan) and Ninjapat (Pat Shea)