Giancarlo Stanton remains an enigma on field and with autographs

With Giancarlo Stanton‘s six homers in his last six games, he’s helped everybody re-focus on players who aren’t those two rookies with all those home runs and he only needs two homers in his next two names to tie a major-league record.

The Miami Marlins slugger has an MLB-leading 44 homers on the year — a pace that’s actually right with Roger Maris‘ pace in 1961 — and that’s a career-high as well as a Marlins franchise record with plenty of games still left to play. (Yet, ironically, Stanton reportedly just cleared waivers — so some of those games left could come in a different uniform.)

But that’s not the only enigma that is Stanton, and it’s something that you can see on his earliest cards like this one from 2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition when you compare them to today. What is it?

Ian Happ’s big arrival for Cubs might be calm before storm on cards

The newest big-name Chicago Cubs prospect arrived on Saturday and made his presence felt immediately in his first game with a two-run homer.

So far, Ian Happ is hitting .429 in his first two games, further helping bolster a mostly home-grown lineup that is watched closely by collectors.

Happ is not a surprise for prospectors as the defending World Series champs took him with the ninth pick in the 2015 MLB Draft out of the University of Cincinnati– and he’s been watched on cardboard ever since — but sales of his cards, at least so far, are showing some room for growth.

Board Buzz: Must-read threads on the Blowout Forums (Feb. 25)

The Blowout Cards Forums are where thousands of collectors converge daily to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. Here are five threads about collecting and more that you should check out right now.

What’s Buzzing Today: Showing off comic art, big Plates & Patches pulls, other breaks and waiting for 2017 Topps Heritage.

Bowman Platinum’s powerful return should impress with checklist alone

Big names, big ink and a smaller than normal distribution is a recipe for a hot product with longer-term potential.

Some of the names on the autographed checklist should reinforce that potential — Alex Bregman, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Brendan Rodgers, Daz Cameron, Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ, Lucas Giolito, Willson Contreras, Yoan Moncada, Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Kris Bryant, Kenta Maeda, Mike Trout and Trevor Story. (And that’s just two of the checklists in this one.)

That product is 2016 Bowman Platinum, and it’s initially billed as a Walmart-only brand doing well enough that it’s now also available with 20-pack boxes on hand from Blowout.