Bill Gross Is Selling Off

Is it a bad omen.?

A major collector selling off. Does it signify anything in particular?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-g...n-1518480419

I thought Gross sold off millions of dollars worth of stamps Hawaii, USA, Switzerland, Great Britain etc. over last 10-15 years. Perhaps this is the end of it. If you add up his sales must be in 50 million plus dollar range . That's a lot of money invested in stamp collecting. Looking forward to seeing the American treasures coming up for auction later in year.

The good American way ! Siegel and Gross making more $$$$ !!

Doesn't he sell off stuff every few years and donate the proceeds to charity?

Yes, most of the proceeds are donated to charity.

Better sold at auction and put back into the market for others to aspire to own than permanently entomb them in a museum and make them unobtainable to anyone. (even in a postal museum as well developed as the National Philatelic museum at the Smithsonian, which Gross played a major role in development of over the past several decade)

This isn't to say I am against museums, they play a valuable role in both preservation of philatelic heritage and as centers of education for potential future hobbyists, but keeping items of rare provenancee in the market gives collectors goals and aspirations that in many ways is the whole raison d-etre of colectible hobbies to begin with.

A series of sales like this will generate some prolonged excitement in and for the hobby. Its even better that its not all in one sale - as that will stretch it out a bit.

With any luck, this will attract some new collectors to the hobby, which would be a very good thing.

This reminds me a bit, of the Ishikawa sale in 1993, I believe. It was an important sale, that re-distributed a lot of the top-end pieces in US philately - no doubt some to Gross.

While most of us wont be forking out 100K++ for the top items, it will generate press publicity that will reach out beyond the close-nit usual philatelic community.

The inverted 1869 24 cent block came from Ishikawa.

The inverted 24 cent block is ex-Worthington. It was sold to Siegel auctions at the Ishikawa sale, and Siegel later placed it with Gross. Scott Trepel told the story of the purchase, I think in the Bierman taped interview.

Here is a link to the Siegel Gross Sale auction items. Great photos and information.

https://siegelauctions.com/grosspreview

They HAD to stretch it out. There are only so many buyers in this stratosphere. Even they need to catch their breath occasionally.

Actually, this is not correct. Worthington, who died in 1924, never had it. It was purchased from William Thorpe of NYC by dealer A. W. Batchelder in about 1900, who counted William H. Crocker as one of his major clients. Crocker held the block until 1938, when it was sold via auction to Y. Souren. Several other owners held it before Ishikawa came along. Siegel bought the block in 1993 from the main Ishikawa sale, but they did not sell it to Mr. Gross. Steven Walske bought it from Siegel in 1996, and held it until 2003 when Mr. Gross bought it.

forgot that Walske had the block between Siegel and Gross. I need to check on Worthington - I thought for sure he held it.

The story that Scott Trepel tells of how Siegel ended up with the block is kind of funny - Christies opened bidding on the lot (which was both the last lot of the sale and the image on the cover of the catalog) at $450,000 against an estimate of $750-850,000. The auctioneer said something like "Scott, do you want to put in a bid to start things off?" So Trepel raised his hand as a courtesy. However, no other bids came and he ended up with the block, which he didn't really want. It sat in his safe until he placed it with Walske three years later.

Siegel Co. sent out a 48 page "sale preview" written up by Charles Shreve and his ex, Tracy Carey. One of those two did a writeup on the 24c invert block (p. 34) in which they trace the whereabouts of the block from its discovery on a package wrapper in Liverpool in the 1880s or 90s right up to its purchase by Gross. Worthington's name does not come up among those listed throughout the period when he was alive. I gave you the owners from 1900 to 1938. Let me know if you want the one's from before 1900.