Apparently every dollar counts in GameStop’s $56 billion effort to acquire eBay.
GameStop’s CEO, Ryan Cohen, already has a $20 billion financing commitmentfrom TD Bank to put toward the acquisition, but questions remain about how the rest of the deal will be funded given GameStop’s market cap is only about $11 billion.
On Wednesday, Cohen said in a post on X he had come up with a creative way to fill the gap: “I’m selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay.” If he sold all the merchandise listed on his seller page, which includes everything from baseball trading cards, video games, and other items, at the current top bids, Cohen would be able to collect more than $138,000, a minuscule fraction of the total $56 billion.
Yet, less than 10 hours after Cohen’s initial X post, his account, ryan_5050 was suspended, according to a screenshot he posted on X.
The trouble may have started just hours after his initial social media post. Cohen had listed a myriad of items for sale on the online marketplace site, including old GameStop signs, a GameStop mug, and even an old square of “GameStop carpet.” Meme stock devotees quickly bid up the price of all the items, including a pair of worn Adidas crew socks, which as of midday Thursday were going for about $14,188. Cohen also said each buyer would get a signed copy of the offer letter he sent to eBay’s board and free shipping, Bloomberg reported.
Hours after his initial X post detailing his plans to purchase eBay, Cohen followed up with a screenshot of eBay giving him a warning: he had gone over eBay’s limit for posting items totaling more than $50,000 in a month.
Just before midnight, he posted a follow up screenshot that said his account had been “permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk.”
“On phone with customer support @eBay. please respond @eBay,” he wrote in a follow-up post.
As of Thursday, Cohen’s account still appeared on eBay, though it’s unclear if he still has access to it.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for GameStop directed Fortune to Cohen’s post on X saying it “speaks for itself.” The spokesperson didn’t immediately respond when asked to confirm whether Cohen’s account had been suspended. A spokesperson for eBay did not immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
I have been suspended from eBay pic.twitter.com/0vadYCQ6KE
— Ryan Cohen (@ryancohen) May 7, 2026
GameStop’s unsolicited bid to acquire eBay surprised investors, including Michael Burry, of “The Big Short” fame, who said earlier this week he was selling all his shares in the company, saying, “Never confuse debt for creativity.” Burry said in a Monday Substack post he was concerned about how the deal would skyrocketing the company’s debt.
Cohen is known for his bold moves. In 2011, he started Chewy, the e-commerce website for pet supplies, which he later sold to PetSmart for $3.5 billion. Later, during the memestock frenzy of the early 2020s, Cohen’s venture capital firm made $68 million after offloading a 10% stake in Bed, Bath & Beyond. He took a stake in GameStop in 2020, and gained notoriety as the “Meme King” after retail traders sent the video game retailer’s shares soaring more than 1,700% in just weeks.
After previously serving on the board, he became CEO of GameStop in 2023. Since then, Cohen has pushed austerity measures that include closing physical stores and laying off about 4,500 employees since he took charge. The company’s market cap has increased to nearly $11 billion from $1.3 billion in 2021.
As for the eBay acquisition, Cohen said in an interview with CNBC this week that the conversations are “just starting.” The company is meeting this week to review the offer, Semafor reported. “This is a business that is under-earning and can make a lot more money. And GameStop is a good blueprint for that,” Cohen said of the potential acquisition on CNBC.
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