2006.08.13 Ken Whitman's Fuzzy Math on $18K

I was reading this post about Ken Whitman trying to sell his old equipment and expertise and it got me thinking....."I have enough older equipment laying around for a small publisher to star his/her own POD service. 

This equipment is good for producing about 100 books in an 8 hr. shift. We were saving it for backup but when you make 2k books in 8 hrs, this older equipment is not really backup; it just takes up needed space.

So, I am willing to sell a color printer, B&W printer, binding equipment, scoring board, a cutter and laminator (everything you need to make books) , and a week of training for a mere 18k."

If find it interesting Ken Whitman is asking for $18K on August 13th.....for some reason this specific number stuck in my head.....I know I'd seen it somewhere....know I remember.....from the Highlander CCG Post:

"Unfortunately, Mr Sager may not hold $18k of my money hostage because he feels I may or may not owe him paperwork that will make a difference of a few hundred dollars. This is simply a stalling tactic so he can use the money he owes me to get the next round of printing done...........And lastly, I am willing to settle for $15k from Mike."

Unfortunately the dates don't quite line up, since that post was made on May 10, 2007, but if we go back a bit to the Vixen Printing Post we get a bit of a clearer picture from Bethane...
"This was just before the '06 con season began. If any of you recall, we were thought highly of for a brief period back then. The first thing that went bad, was we took a $20,000 hit from a company that stiffed us."

Now we have Ken Whitman willing to sell you equipment and training for $18K in August apparently to make up for an $18K shortfall reported later as $20K. Ken Whitman is willing to settle for $15K in May after failing to raise a $22,500 for his non-existent company.

I expected to lose you on that one....you see Ken Whitman tried to get a loan through Prosper in the fall of 2006. Never-mind the fact that RapidPOD didn't exist between November 2, 2006 and September 10, 2007.

I particularly like Ken Whitman's take on the Prosper loan, "When you have 350k in equipment, and your bank limit is maxed out, AND you have to pay some bills, sometimes one has to be creative. Unfortinatly Propser does not allow clients in KY to get a lone for higher then 7%, thus making the debt to income look REALLY crapy!"

Obviously he doesn't understand the concept of Debt-to-Income ratio and how a loan he doesn't get doesn't change that ratio any.....besides, wasn't he claiming that "he" was making "lots of money"? That would affect the DTI considerably....in a good way!

I guess this all just proves that Math, and business, isn't really Ken Whitman's strong suit.....