From Collecting to Being on Cards of Their Own, Allar and Singleton Talk Topps Signing

In a world of NFTs and ever more complicated ways of collecting things, nothing really beats the original trading card. It’s the smell of a fresh pack, waiting to see what it holds inside. Your favorite player? A rising rookie? A card lost in a box only to be discovered again decades later? The potential is there, the intrigue almost addicting for those hoping to get their hands on something special. It’s part of the reason why card sales rocketed during the pandemic, a chance to get excited about something while stuck at home inside.

“It was like a Christmas gift for all the grandkids at one point,” Penn State quarterback Drew Allar said of his own collection with a smile. “Getting the new set of just the NFL cards, obviously, because there was no college cards at the time. Just the new set every year and then me and my dad would go through and organize everyone in binders. They’re still up in my room somewhere.”

Penn State football players have been on football cards for years now — a bumble around eBay and you can find cards from the 1990s if you really want — but the onset of NIL has generated a new platform for players to step even further into the light when it comes to the white hot world of sports cards and memorabilia. For the likes of Nick Singleton and Allar, after signing with Topps and the Bowman collection they’re now suddenly on the cards themselves. A long road from where they were a few years ago, still in high school, dreaming about what might happen one day.

“It’s just cool to have those opportunities. Now that NIL is a thing,” Singleton said, noting that his dad collected baseball cards when Singleton was growing up. “So it’s definitely cool to just have that be a reality.”

Of course, for the likes of Singleton and Allar there is a balancing act to be found here. How do you make the most of NIL while also not losing sight of the bigger picture? Well, it helps if you’re represented by people. Not nearly as much heavy lifting when all you have to do is click “post” on Instagram.

“It’s definitely a balance for sure,” Allar said. “And that’s part of the reason why I found people to represent me because … my main focus is school and football and NIL was third, and pretty far behind those two. So for me, it was just definitely finding the right balance and how [it] helped just, you know, with somebody managing all that for me, so it was very minimal levels of stress for me. So they have done a great job for me, and honestly, they make it very simple for me. I just have to push a few buttons and then it’s done.”

And all you have to do is open a few packs and a Drew Allar or Nick Singleton card might be yours.