Make a Half Billion Dollars Buying a Volkswagen?

As Volkswagen just announced the retirement of the legendary Volkswagen Beetle from its fleet, we thought we would bring to light a less known story about the Volkswagen Beetle and how it played an important roll in one VW owners life.

It happened in 1961, two brothers Tom and James Monaghan just recently bought a pizza restaurant, DomiNicks for a whopping $500. The plan was for the brothers to split nights as James had a full time job as a mailman which paid better than the startup pizza restaurant. After about eight months of running the business as a partnership, James decided to trade his stake to his brother for a used 1959 Volkswagen Beetle which at the time was the restaurant’s delivery vehicle.

Back in 1999 when Tom sold his 93% shares of the business he was paid $1 billion. Half of those shares came from his brother by purchasing his shares for the 59 Beetle. So the value of $12,000 (present day for the beetle’s past value) would be worth an adjusted $500 million.

Now we know some VW Beetle’s have gone for a hefty price tag at various auctions but think the $500 million mark is quite impressive.