It’s been a few months since Lucky Peach officially closed its doors. A lot went down in the six years since the magazine was created by Momofuku chef/owner David Chang and writer Peter Meehan in 2011. The food-centric indie publication won a few James Beard Awards, established a visual aesthetic that influenced the look of food media, and deployed some daring strategies at a time when many media watchers were bemoaning the death of print. While LP wasn’t exactly the food media savior its fans hoped it would be, it was an interesting experiment that earned a devoted cult following, and it made some very cool strides along the way. And now that Lucky Peach has officially folded, many of those back issues have become serious collector’s items.
For context, LP issues cost $12 at newsstands, excluding the flagship issue, which sold for $10. An annual subscription to the magazine cost $28 per year. This means that collecting all 24 issues of LP would have cost $274 at the newsstand and $168 by subscription during its run: That’s a steal considering that a full collection is currently worth between two and seven times its initial value. For the most avid fans seeking pristine copies of each issue, buying individual copies to make a complete Lucky Peach collection costs as much as $1,109.60, total, on eBay (as of this writing). Meanwhile, buying used copies of each issue will cost as little as $499.50.
If that seems outrageous, keep in mind that copies of the flagship Ramen issue went for as much as $162.50 in 2012, more than 16 times its newsstand price. Right now, some ambitious souls are even listing that first issue on Amazon for more than a thousand dollars and as much as $2,500 — but these are outliers.
For all of this talk of numbers and figures, the real bottom line lies in the simple fact that LP was a wild, quirky, and refreshingly self-aware magazine that dared to be just that. It experimented with collectible fruit stickers inserted into the second issue (currently $94.95 on eBay); a vaguely heterosexist, yet gloriously chaotic gender issue split into two halves by gender ($24.99); and the inclusion of a completely separate “guts”-themed mini issue hidden in its second Cooks and Chefs ($24.99). Even in its simple commitment to a recurring space for fiction pieces, the magazine took wild leaps to redefine what exactly a food magazine could be and do. Judging by the issues’ current rates, LP’s risks paid off.
The most expensive issues are some of the most popular: the Ramen issue ($250), the Chinatown issue ($120), and the first Cooks and Chefs issue ($177.64). These issues are going for even higher rates on Amazon. Its first issue, the most valuable to date, was a deep dive into the curiously complex world of ramen and whether or not it would last an ill-fated incorporation into a burrito. The issue featured illustrations of chefs it deemed “ramen gods,” which were later printed as full posters and available for sale through Cannonball Press.
Curiously, three of the most interesting, but under-appreciated issues are the cheapest to acquire: The All You Can Eat issue ($18.99), the Cooks and Chefs III issue ($19.79), and the Plant Kingdom issue ($19.99). The last delved into the myriad ways vegetables were sleeper culinary powerhouses and cultural and religious signifiers. From articles about the dietary restrictions of monks to in-depth explorations of bean-based desserts, the issue captured Lucky Peach’s commitment to spotlighting the food world’s sometimes under-appreciated heroes.
And for anyone who wants to eschew buying these issues piece by piece, complete collections are up for grabs for anywhere from $2,200 to $5,500.
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