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?

Star power is really nothing new with Topps Update & Topps Traded RCs

First Bowman Chrome autos, Topps Heritage autos and Rookie Cards in general for key players seem to be powering sales of wax boxes most generally these days for Major League Baseball.

Those shouldn’t be too surprising, but in a world of seemingly countless options with autographs, serial-numbering or memorabilia pieces one could argue that less is more — that oldschool simplicity is back.

And one could argue that the basic Rookie Cards from a hobby staple such as Topps Update (or Topps Traded if you’re oldschool) continue to be an emerging go-to — and not just for players such as Mike Trout, whose 2011 Topps Update card is a ridiculous seller if in top condition and still pretty impressive if just in a lesser slab.

Perhaps it’s just a gut feeling with the arrival of 2017 Topps Update previewing last week and its date now known on the release calendar — but the old Topps Traded sets of the 1980s and even recent years of Topps Update also seem like fertile collecting ground, too, especially if you’re into graded specimens.

Here’s a year-by-year rundown of notable Rookie Cards from past Traded and Update sets …

Board Buzz: Must-read threads on the Blowout Forums (March 29)

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

What’s Buzzing Today: Nothing but breaks in today’s edition.

Topps Update will include three retail-only sets when it arrives

When 2016 Topps Update arrives in October, it will include the finale for the hobby’s flagship design with the newest names in the game and some highlights still to come.

While the First Look preview came back in May (click here for that), Topps disclosed today that there will be three retail-only inserts to come in Update.

First Buzz: 2016 Topps Update baseball cards

What: 2016 Topps Update baseball cards
Arrives: Oct. 19
Box basics: One autograph or Relic per 36-pack box (12 boxes per case); One autograph and two Relics per 10-pack jumbo box (six boxes per case)

What’s buzz-worthy: The formula that is Topps’ flagship and then Topps Update is back with a few twists and some new inclusions — First Pitch, First Pitch Relics and Topps Fire cards, for example — to get collectors chasing top performers and rookies from this season.

Keep reading for more as well as a full gallery of images.

Topps’ retail Mega Boxes are home to mega-bargains if you discover the right players & parallels

If you’ve done some cardboard hunting at the retail aisle, you may have passed right by the home of some of the hottest baseball cards available in stores like Target.

The card above? It’s a 2015 Topps Chrome Update Black Refractor of reigning National League Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant and it was only found in a 2015 Topps Update Mega Box — a retail box with five Update packs and two exclusive Chrome Update packs inside.

It’s serial-numbered to 99 copies and sold for $100 on eBay. Because there are only two Chrome packs per box, these have been selling quite well because key guys aren’t simple every-box pulls even for their base cards. (You can find boxes and cases at Blowout right here, though.)