The key issue is what value does the current owner put on the books in
the store? The chances are that he's creamed off the best for himself
and has left you with the dross that he can't sell. The internet is
awash with books that just won't sell. Unless you are convinced that he
has a large stock of books that have never been exposed to the
internet, it seems quite risky. But if he's cherry-picked the best
titles, you are on a loser.
The books that sell online are the very rare ones. If you have little
biblio knowledge you won't know that until you list one of them for $20
and then get flooded with orders. And even then you're obligated to
fulfill the first order so you won't benefit anyway.
My advice would be: unless the dealer can give you a satisfactory
reassurance that this stock is either very valuable or else unexposed
to the internet, value the books extremely low. 95% of what he has is
probably unsaleable. By all means pay whatever you want for the
building - that's a separate issue - but be wary about the book stock.
Unless you have stumbled across an aged bookseller who has never used
the internet, you'll likely get ripped off. Most booksellers have
closed down their shops to concentrate on selling from their spare room
at home because the overheads are intimidating; take my word for it,
they've done that for a reason.
Good luck either way.
>> Stay informed about: Internet sales 
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