If you like pizza and who doesn’t? Then an interesting story is breaking out of Louisville, Kentucky today. The owner and founder of Papa Johns Pizza was on a mission to find an old car he once owned. John Schatter had to sell his car to help his father keep a tavern going; while using the rest of the money to start Papa Johns Pizza.

 

He sold the 1971 Camaro back in 1983 and looking at it 26 years later, I think he made the right decision. I think most of us would sell our car today, if we knew we could turn the cash into a successful pizza chain. Papa Johns does make a great pizza with a very tasty pizza sauce. Adding in a pepper to each order has been a little trademark of Papa Johns and those peppers called peperoncini are great with Papa Johns Pizza.

It wasn’t easy to track down this 1971 Camaro and John did go to great lengths to find it. It turns out that the original buyer back in 1983 no longer had the car, but did help track down the people he sold the car to. These people still had the car and good thing they did. John wanted the car back so bad, that he posted a 250,000 dollar reward for the person that would deliver him the car back. After paying this hefty reward for his beloved car back, John did take care of the other guy that helped him locate the car. This man received a nice $25,000 for his efforts in helping the owner of Papa Johns Pizza to find his old Camaro.

Papa Johns Pizza stores all across the land are offering a free pizza on Wednesday (today) to anyone that owns a Camaro. You will be hard-pressed to find a better pizza out there and if you haven’t never tried a Papa Johns Pizza; then today would be a good time to start. Especially for those that own a Cheverolet Camaro and can get a free pizza!

I guess many of you are wondering what he will do with the car now? John actually had a replica on display in the Papa Johns Headquarters located in Kentucky. He will now replace that car with the actual car he had to sell 26 years ago. People visiting Kentucky for years had the KFC tourist attraction that people travel to each day to see where the first KFC restaurant was located and where all that good chicken started from. The success of Papa John’s business has made this another tourist attraction in Kentucky and you can purchase Papa John stock on the NYSE (PZZA). The stock price is up today and selling for just a shade over $24 a share. You can’t buy Papa Johns Pizza in every U.S. state and they are still growing as a company. I do think this is an attactive long-term stock to buy for those wanting to get in the pizza business through Wall Street.

Now the final numbers and tracking the famous 1971 Camaro goes as follows:

*John sells the car in 1983 for $2,800 to the original buyer (money used for father’s tavern in Jeffersonville, Indiana and to start Papa Johns Pizza)

*Original Buyer sells the car for $4,000 in 2004 (approx.) to Jeffery Robinson in Flatwoods, Kentucky

*John starts massive campaign to track down the black and gold Camaro and even offers a $250,000 reward

*Original buyer sees an interview with John on a preseason NFL game this month talking about the hunt for the car

*Original buyer contacts John and the person he sold the car to and helps reunite the man and his car

*Jeffery Robinson collects the $250,000 reward by selling the car back to John and the original buyer gets $25,000 for his efforts

All 3 men in this story profit from one very famous 1971 black and gold Camaro! Let’s look at this in terms of money spent and the money they earned by coming in contact with Papa.

1. Original Buyer buys the car for $2,800 and profits $1,200 when he sells the car for $4,000. Gets rewarded an additional $25,000 for helping track down the person he sold the car to. Total Profit: $26,200

2. Jeffery Robinson pays $4,000 for the car and sells it back to John for $250,000. Total Profit: $246,000

3. Papa John buys the car for $$$ (unknown) and sells the car for $2,800. Money used to help dad’s tavern and to start Papa Johns Pizza. John has to pay out $275,000 to retrieve the car. Total Profit: -$272, 200 Plus earnings from the Papa Johns Pizza Franchise which calculates into the millions based on the value of the franchise. Real Total Profit: Priceless

This is truly a story everybody wins in and I think all 3 parties are very happy about 1 special 1971 Camaro from the Blue Grass State of Kentucky. Not to mention the free pizza that every Camaro owner in America can take advantage of today or where they have a Papa Johns Pizza franchise.

Have you ever worked at a Papa Johns restaraunt? If so, then please be sure to share your stories on your work experience there. Do you like the food as an employee? How is John as a boss? Do you feel that Papa Johns Pizza is as good as Dominos Pizza or Pizza Hut’s pizza?

Have you ever ate Papa Johns Pizza? Please be sure to give feedback on how good you think their pizza really is? How do you think it stacks up against the other guys in the pizza market? How would you rank todays most popular pizza places?

1) Papa Johns

2) Pizza Hut

3) Dominos

4) Little Caesars

5) Cici’s Pizza

6) Other?

Since doing this blog post it has made me a bit hungry and I am craving a little Papa Johns Pizza. I think I would have to rank them (Papa Johns) first at this moment on my rankings. I would put Dominos in 2nd place, Pizza Hut in 3rd place, and Little Caesars in 4th place. Based on price and value for the almighty dollar, I do love Cici’s Pizza’s “all you can eat” buffets and rank them first on value with the $5 large pepperoni pizzas Little Caesars sells each day as 2nd on the value list. All 5 of these popuplar pizza chains do make great pizza and you should try them all. Let me know your favorite places to eat a good ol slice of pizza from.