From Bond King To Stamp Sultan: Bill Gross Makes $4.4M At Largest US Sale On Record

PIMCO founder and investor Bill Gross — best known as the "Bond King" for his role in the bond market — collected $4.4 million at an auction for a rare stamp.

What Happened: Gross, who has been shying away from recommending bond investment in recent months, sold the final parts of his rare stamp collection at a Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries event held over the weekend.

The record-breaking sale included an extremely rare once-cent Z-Grill stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin‘s likeness. According to Cllct, a website focused on collectibles, an "Inverted Jenny" stamp sold for $2 million at auction in 2023.

The all-time record for a stamp sold belongs to a one-cent magenta British Guiana stamp, which sold for over $8 million previously.

Gross acquired the highly coveted stamp in 2003 by trading a 24-cent Inverted Jenny Plate Block stamp, which he purchased for $2.97 million — dubbed the "Greatest Stamp Swap in History."

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Why It Matters: The one-cent Z-Grill stamp is one of only two known to exist. The other stamp was donated to the New York Public Library in 1925.

Before Gross, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss and stamp collector Robert Zoellner each owned the one-cent Z-Grill.

"It's the holy grail of collecting United States stamps," U.S. Siegel Auction Galleries Director Charles Shreve said, as reported by the New York Post.

Gross, 80, grew interested in stamps as a child. In the 1930s and 1940s, his mom bought stamps as an investment for the future costs of his college education.

"He likes to take chaos and turn it into something that is set, creating order out of disorder," Shreve, who served as an advisor to Gross, said. "That has given him a sense of pride of accomplishing something."

Shreve says that Gross would only take calls from himself and Warren Buffett during the day, which may speak to the prominent role stamps played in his life.

The stamp advisor to Gross recalled watching football games with Gross and looking through auction catalogs to buy stamps.

"While stamps are used less and less these days, stamps are pieces of Americana, and people like to collect things that were in the past."

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Image: Siegel Auction Galleries