A few things...

First, you need to start with a ton of inventory. If you don't, when you open and people first see your store, it will seem empty. Since the first impression is very important, a really well stocked shelf at the beginning will make people want to return in the future to see things again and again.

Secondly - and this may sound crazy - but ignore the DP prices. You'll be dealing with the general public more than game collectors, so having a game like the first Zelda listed for $3.00 in your store will mean you'll never, ever have it in stock because people are still willing to pay $8-15.00 for their own copy.

Thirdly, don't focus on older stuff as much as you do newer stuff. Balance is key. Online, having a store (like the GOAT Store) stocked with a million old items is a benefit because people can get so much at once. But in real life, they probably will only buy one or two things, and most of them will have a modern system while only certain numbers will have older systems. Besides that, you can make more money off the newer systems than you can the older systems.

Fourthly, don't have arcade / pinball games unless you intend on selling them. You won't make much money from them, most communities have insane rules about running them (for instance, the rules in the city of Milwaukee are insane, but are completely different in the surrounding cities in the county). If you aren't selling them, having them as "not a main attraction" (in other words, the arcade being the main part of the store) means that people won't be stopping in to play them, and if they are on freeplay you'll just end up with them getting damaged and you having to pay for them. Selling them is another story altogether, and I know of a few places around town that do that, but I wouldn't suggest bothering with that unless you're really ambitious. That type of inventory takes up a TON of space, and if you're not turning it over quickly you can use that space for things that actually make money.

Fifthly, if you're planning on involving the Web, that adds a million and five layers of complexity. You have to track both inventories in realtime and make sure that the games are removed at the very instant they are sold so that people in the store don't try buying something that has already been sold online.

Sixthly, accepting credit cards totally sucks. But you'll have to do it. PM me for more details.

There is some more stuff too. If you're interested in hearing it, like I said above PM me. Gary and I have sort of had the goal of having a brick and mortar GOAT Store for years now, and even though the GOAT Store doesn't perform badly, we don't feel that it is a good enough vehicle to make enough money to pay for rent with. We do have another plan that has been kicking around that we may or may not be doing that is pretty much unrelated to gaming because of it.