Hey Greg,

Read you reaction to my "Game Store" post and thought I'd clarify why this is actually a do-able deal.

Two and a half years ago, a Christian guy in our area started a game store. His folks were independently wealthy so there were no money pressures for him. Last November, at the ripe old age of 34, he passed away via Nyquil. Apparently, he was an undiagnosed diabetic. So the nyquil, which contained alcohol, sugar and acetimenophen (sp?) was like liquid poison for his body. He came down with what he thought was the flu, and three days later, his kidneys failed (via the Nyquil) and he died.

Anyway, in the two and a half years that he ran the store, he had grown the business to a point where the store was self-sufficient and he was able to draw a meager (but entirely unnecessary) salary. The interesting thing was, he was never really interested in the business side of things. He had no web presence, he did no advertising and he had no real business model. He simply relied upon good service and good word of mouth to build a $125K business.

So now, his parents are at a crossroads. He had become a believer in college, but his family never understood that. So they don't have any beliefs in the afterlife, etc... So when they see the game store, they see his ongoing legacy. And because they are independently wealthy, they could care less whether they sold it for $30K or a $150K. They just want to see it continue.

So right now, they have a inventory of $75K that they can retail for $125K (not including the computers, security systems, hardware, etc...) and they are looking to sell it for $55K. Their thought is, sell it to someone who wants to make a run at building an income-generating business (not just a self-sustaining business that functions as a hobby). If that someone can't make a go of it within six months (when the store lease is up), that individual can liquidate the inventory and recoup all of their money (and probably even make a small profit). But, if they can make a run with it, you have the start of an honest to goodness business that could carry on his legacy.

So in terms of business ventures, this is about as close to zero-risk as you can get. Moreover, if I do this, my brother is very interesting in fronting the money for a percentage of the business down the road. If I so desired at some later date, I could easily buy him out and he is fine with that. His interest is in getting something like this off the ground without having the time to invest in making it happen.

So I've got the backing. I've got a steal in terms of inventory. And I have a client base that has already brought the store to profit-making status (althoug that profit is extremely minimal at the moment).

So that's a more in depth view of what I'm looking at. And hopefully, that puts your mind at ease in terms of debt. Because like you, I too share a strong aversion to the whole concept of credit, etc ...