To some, a 1985 Topps Alvin Davis card doesn’t mean much. Its worth is less than a dollar, and this one isn’t even in mint condition. To Don Joss, that card means nostalgia. Memories versus dollars and cents. Or even collecting for joy versus collecting for profit. That’s the power of trading cards. To many they’re more than simple pieces of cardboard smeared with pictures, names and statistics. They’re a glimpse of personal history.

“I look at this card and remember all sorts of things,” Joss said. “Riding bikes with friends down to McDonald’s. … I used to love watching him (Davis) play.”

Joss, owner of DJ’s Sportscards in the Renton Highlands, has always had a connection to collectibles. The Hazen graduate was more of a “comic book guy” when he was younger and didn’t get into cards until around 1985. He worked at a comic book and card store, Warlord Comics and Films. After working there for a while, he decided to sell his card collection at a convention and go to work at a grocery store. But, trading cards apparently weren’t done with Joss.

A short time after selling his collection, his former boss at Warlord called and offered to sell out his card inventory to Joss. He jumped at the opportunity and Joss’s card shop began.

At first, Joss was somewhat naive about the business; but it wasn’t much of a hinderance because the card market started to take off in the late 1980s.

“Back then, you didn’t have to know what you were doing,” Joss said. “You just had to put stuff on the shelf and people would buy it.”

Joss had another advantage in that the store wasn’t his livelihood early on.

“I was still in high school, I lived with my parents and I was working at Safeway,” Joss said. “It wasn’t make or break for me.”

One early victim of DJ’s success has been Joss’s personal collection of sports cards. He couldn’t afford to maintain a personal collection and what was in the store.

“I had to divorce myself from the collecting side of it,” Joss said. “It’s fun for me to have kids come in and buy stuff they want.”

The business continued to grow and Joss moved the shop to its current location in June 1990, where it has thrived, despite a few changes in technology that altered the sports card landscape.

One of those changes was the advent of the Internet, which has altered the sports-cards business in both positive and negative ways for DJ’s. One change facing Joss is the increased number of sellers striving to offer lower prices.

“There’s a lot more competition,” Joss said. “Especially with newer products that have a small mark-up to begin with. Now people can buy it cheaper from some guy across the country.”

However, the technology has made some tasks easier, more efficient and cheaper. Things like making a mailer that used to take hours to put together, print out and mail has been replaced by e-mail. Now the mailers can have color photos, they’re instant and there’s no charge.

“It’s really become much easier to reach customers and tell them about products,” Joss said. “Somebody can have trouble sleeping in the middle of the night and go online and see stuff they want, then come in and get it later.”

That’s how the majority of DJ’s online business works. Not actual online sales, but customers see items that interest them online, then come into the store.

“While we do sell some things online, it’s mostly just used to draw people in,” Joss said.

Once the customers are inside, Joss has stuck to providing an affordable atmosphere. Aside from a few big ticket-items that have passed through DJ’s, things like a Ty Cobb cut signature card that sold for $3,000 and a 1967 Topps complete set that sold for $2,500, most items are available to the average consumer. He’d rather sell a Mickey Mantle card to someone for $20 because it has worn corners than have a mint version sitting in a glass case weighed down by a much larger price tag.

“The high-priced stuff isn’t our focus,” Joss said. “We’ll definitely buy it and probably sell it pretty quickly, but we try to be more family oriented.”

Things have been a little more eventful for Joss and DJ’s recently. The year-long closing of Duvall Avenue for a widening project has cut back on traffic into the store, and Joss said the loyal customer-base DJ’s has established is helping business stay steady. Joss also recently welcomed a new child to his family. His ninth, Mercy Anne is just nine weeks old.

Now celebrating the store’s 20th anniversary, DJ’s is becoming a multi-generational place.

“It’s funny, now kids that used to shop here have started bringing in their own kids to shop,” Joss said.

Adam McFadden can be reached at amcfadden@reporternewspapers.com or 425-255-3484, ext. 5054.