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Stamps from collection of Bill Gross sell for $10 million

Bill Gross, co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Bloomberg FI16 event in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

The philatelist bond billionaire has the most complete collection of stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

Stamps from bond billionaire Bill Gross’ collection sold for $10 million in New York on Wednesday evening, a record for a single-day auction dedicated to philately.

The group was offered by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries Inc., the first in a series of sales of Mr. Gross’ stamps over the next two to three years. All but a handful of the 106 lots at the auction sold. The top lot was a center-inverted block of four stamps from 1869 that fetched $737,500. Prices included an 18% buyer’s premium.

“A lot of these iconic items were bought by a billionaire and now they are dispersed among the riffraff,” said Arthur Przybyl, chief executive officer of Ani Pharmaceuticals Inc. Sitting in the first row, he won the night’s second-most-expensive item: a blue Hawaiian missionary from 1851 that brought $619,500. “I lost a lot, but I won the stamp I really wanted.”

(More: Bill Gross chooses to load up on futures, generates big losses)

Mr. Gross, 74, has the most complete collection of stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service, with individual stamps, blocks of them, and stamped envelopes. One album has hundreds of examples from the first U.S. federal postage issue in 1847.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Gordon Eubanks, a tech entrepreneur, who spent more than $1.2 million on at least seven lots in Wednesday night’s sale, including the unique “Bible Block” of six 10-cent stamps from 1847, for $590,000.

Mr. Gross, a bond portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Group Plc, has built and sold several top stamp compilations since he began collecting in 1992. He’s previously raised $27 million for charity from stamp sales, including Swiss and British treasures. Now he’s unloading the U.S. items, his biggest prize. All proceeds from the auctions will go to charities, Mr. Gross has said.

(More: Bill Gross’ bond fund sees $580 million of outflows in first half)

His collection was valued at $42.2 million, according to court papers filed last October as part of a divorce settlement between him and his wife, Sue Gross. After the couple divided their assets, including multiple homes and artwork, he retained a personal net worth estimated by Bloomberg at $1.6 billion.

The money manager amassed the core of his U.S. collection in 1993, when an important trove of U.S. stamps owned by Japanese bank chairman Ryohei Ishikawa came up for auction. Mr. Gross bought more than $2 million of stamps at the event. Over the years, he’s pounced on every important collection that came to the market.

“Bill Gross had the financial wherewithal and ambition to do it,” said Christopher Rupp, a New York-based philatelist who snapped up about a dozen lots on behalf of clients. “It’s a once-in-a-generation sale.”