My grandparents shopped at Montgomery Wards. My Parents shopped at Sears. Both forgot how to make money and are gone. I wouldn't be surprised to see Amazon gone before Wal-Mart, but I don't expect either to be around in 200 years (note that medical science currently offers me little hope of living beyond either).

This makes me wonder... what happens if you open a Sears card (yesterday) and max it out with all kinds of fun stuff and then Sears goes out of business? Does someone come after you for money?

Yes, debt collection is big business and someone will happily buy your balance for the privilege of getting you to pay it to them.

Sears doesn't actually do the financing for their credit card, it's a Citibank product.

Your debt is an asset, it'll just be sold to someone else.

Debt gets bought and sold all the time, you don't typically notice because you don't have to change who you're paying directly.

While the others who responded to you are correct, there is a chance that they wouldn't be able to prove that you owed the debt properly somehow.

Of course this is a pretty dumb risk to take, even if you were able to resell the valuable items you bought like TVs, tools, and jewelry

The trustee in bankruptcy could sell that debt to a collection agency.

My dad worked a second job at Sears from when I was a kid to the day he retired. Our house was full of Kenmore and Craftsman.