The situation is becoming increasingly surreal, even though the idea of GameStop wanting to buy eBay was already surreal enough. Ryan Cohen’s story has somehow managed to take another strange turn.

The strange story of GameStop’s CEO wanting to buy eBay has taken an even stranger turn. Just a few hours after listing a huge number of items for auction (allegedly to help finance the acquisition), Ryan Cohen said he had been suspended from the platform for endangering the eBay community, though the suspension was apparently lifted at some point, as the account is now visible again. GameStop announced on May 3 that it intended to acquire the much larger eBay, making a half-cash, half-stock offer worth around $56 billion. There is only one problem: GameStop does not have $56 billion, even with the $20 billion in financing proposed by TD.

This led to a bizarre CNBC interview in which Cohen claimed he did not understand the fairly straightforward question of where the money would come from, and repeatedly refused to answer. Then, on May 6, Cohen tweeted that he was selling things on eBay to pay for eBay. The items in question include games and gaming accessories, as well as various sports cards, many of which are quite expensive (a GameStop mouse pad for $1,525, and a Halo 2 Master Chief statue approaching $14,000). But shortly after posting that message, Cohen claimed that he had been suspended from eBay for unknown reasons. According to the image of the suspension notice, his account had been permanently suspended for activity believed to have endangered the eBay community. His account was locked, and his listings were removed.

I’m selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBayhttps://t.co/REaITX9iXr

— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) May 6, 2026

I have been suspended from eBay pic.twitter.com/0vadYCQ6KE

— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) May 7, 2026

Either eBay customer service is extremely fast, or something else happened, because the account was restored. Following the eBay announcement and that baffling CNBC interview, some suggested that the acquisition offer was merely a PR stunt, probably intended to boost GameStop’s share price, though that could also be illegal. And if that was the intention, it certainly does not seem to be working. The takeover offer is probably not a stunt, but simply extremely reckless. Cohen is not going to make up the $14 billion shortfall by selling items on eBay. How many of these bids are serious? If there is anything we have learned about GameStop over the past few years, it is that jokes are never out of the question, even in the world of corporate markets.

Whatever is going on here, there seems to be some potential dissatisfaction in the background. Some people (including Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Videogame History Foundation) believe that at least some of the items Cohen is offering for sale were taken from the Game Informer Vault, a major collection of gaming memorabilia. When Game Informer was acquired by Gunzilla in 2025, the warehouse and its contents remained with the original publisher, GameStop. That would mean Cohen probably has the right to auction off the items as he sees fit (at least if he gets approval from GameStop’s board), but it would still be rather sad to see them scattered like this.

Source: PCGamer, Yahoo, Bsky