Signature Renditions: Roy and Vachon

Here's the latest addition to my Signature Renditions collection: 

This is just the fourth card in the rarer "Combos" checklist that I've manged to track down. These are numbered to just 15 copies each, and as a result they're usually quite a bit more expensive than the single-autograph versions. They're almost always way out of my price range, although I make an attempt for one every now and then when they seem under-priced. That was the case for this one, which didn't actually come from a box of 2013-14 The Cup but was instead repacked in a box of Leaf's 2014-15 Best of Hockey set. I saw this one listed on eBay in Leaf's Best of Hockey slab for about half the price it normally sells for with no one bidding. So I bid the minimum a few days before the auction ended, and, sure enough, nobody else bid. I have no idea if this was a dumb thing to do, but I ended up using a hammer and a chisel to crack this card out of the Leaf slab after I got it. It was driving me nuts that it wouldn't sit evenly along the rest of my SR cards, all of which are in magnetic one-touch holders. OCD, I know.

As you can see, the card celebrates Patrick Roy becoming the first goalie ever to play in 1,000 career games. The Colorado Avalanche and the NHL arranged for Rogie Vachon -- who was one of Roy's idols as a kid -- to present Roy with a silver stick after the game. Roy apparently lists meeting Vachon as one of the greatest moments of his career, alongside all his Stanley Cups, of course.