Ryan Cohen’s eBay auction briefly hit a snag: eBay itself.
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The GameStop CEO announced on Wednesday that he was “selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay,” a reference to the company’s unsolicited bid, though any of his earnings here would be a drop in the bucket relative to the $56 billion deal offer.
The lot includes a GameStop hat (current bid $4,650), Donald Trump baseball card (current bid $5,770), and socks (current bid $14,188).
Less than ten hours after his announcement, Cohen posted that his account had been suspended by eBay.
A person familiar with the matter told Business Insider that eBay’s system automatically flagged Ryan Cohen’s account as suspicious activity due to the volume and price points of the listings that came from a new account.
The account was manually reviewed and reinstated, the person said, adding that the initial suspension had nothing to do with Cohen and his GameStop proposal.
GameStop did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
A timeline of Cohen’s suspension
Less than two hours after announcing the listings, Cohen said that he was on the phone with eBay customer support, sharing a phone screenshot with a notification purportedly from eBay that said he had reached a monthly $50,000 limit for items listed.
Eight hours later, Cohen said that eBay suspended his account. He posted a screenshot of an eBay email on X that said Cohen’s activities were “putting the eBay community at risk.”
“We understand that this must be frustrating, but this decision was not made lightly and it’s important that we keep our marketplace safe for everyone,” the image reads.
Cohen’s posts are helping generate awareness for GameStop’s unsolicited proposal to buy eBay, a company that is several times larger than the games and collectibles retailer.
The proposal has excited GameStop’s legions of retail traders on r/wallstreetbets as critics have questioned how a smaller company like GameStop would fund the deal. In an awkward, combative CNBC interview, Cohen repeated that it would be “half cash, half stock” and referred the anchors to GameStop’s website for more financing details.
With his latest eBay stunt, Cohen continues to turn heads and churn out intrigue on X, reminding people why he’s known as the “meme king.”
Update, May 7, 2026: This story has been updated to include information about why Cohen’s account was suspended.
