The mutual fund industry's former bond king and most famous philatelist is trying to stop a sale of some very rare stamps.

William Hunt Gross

The New York Post reports that Bill Gross' youngest son, 31-year-old Nick Gross, is scheduled to auction off five 1918 "Inverted Jenny" stamps on Friday for up to $3.4 million. Yet 75-year-old Bill Gross is trying to thwart the deal, an unnamed source tells the paper, saying that the elder Gross gave Inverted Jenny stamps to each of his three kids to pass down to his grandchildren.

"There was never an agreement that the stamps would not be sold," Nick Gross told the Post. "This is another example of my father's bad and vindictive behavior, which is why I've had to distance myself from him. If he would like to have the stamps back, he is welcome to buy them at auction."

Bill Gross, who co-founded Pimco and retired in March after PMing at Janus Henderson, revealed back in 2015 that he had thus far spent more than $100 million on philately. Yet for the past 13 years, the bond king has been selling off parts of his collection to benefit his charity, the William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, which he runs with his two older children from a previous marriage. He also funded a gallery at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.

Nick Gross is the drummer in the alternative rock band Half the Animal, the founder of the studio Gross Labs, and the co-founder and co-CEO of the Find Your Grind Foundation. A prior venture of his ended in a legal battle between an ex-business partner on the one hand and Nick Gross and Bill Gross (an investor in the venture) on the other hand.

According to the Post, Nick Gross and Bill Gross have been estranged since Nick's mother, Sue, filed for divorce from Bill three years ago. That messy divorce finalized in 2017. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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