GameStop CEO Appears To Be Auctioning Off Video Game History

from the scattered-to-the-wind dept

By now you likely have caught wind of GameStop, the video game and collectables retailer, announcing a bid to buy eBay. Perhaps you heard of this, as I did, because of GameStop’s CEO, Ryan Cohen, showing up to CNBC’s Squawk Box program where he pulled off one of the strangest interviews about business I’ve ever seen.

In a six-minute interview with CNBC‘s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Cohen gave a series of mostly incoherent responses to the most basic questions, unable to provide any decipherable reasons why a flailing video game retail chain that’s relied on meme stocks and Pokémon cards for its recent survival would even think of trying to buy a massively larger, international e-commerce company. When asked by CNBC, “So you’ve built up a stake in this company already, you’ve had conversations with the company? You’ve tried? What’s happening here?” there’s a deeply awkward pause before Cohen, in his mid-life-crisis black leather jacket, says “…No.” Then after another glacial pause, “We’re just starting,” followed by a very peculiar smirk.

It got stranger and more passive aggressive from there. Cohen indicated that through a stock issuance the company would directly put up $20 billion for the purchase, along with another $20 billion from investors. The problem is that the eBay purchase would require roughly $56 billion. It doesn’t take a professor in advanced mathematics to see the issue here.

Cohen seemed to approach the entire interview with an affected air of disgust and disdain, as if it’s just so beneath him to even have to answer questions based on his announcements. The mini-Musk rolls his eyes and glibly dismisses reasonable questions, which was going badly enough until Sorkin asked the most obvious question of all: “How does the math math?” How does around $20 billion from GameStop and $20 billion from an investor get close to $56 billion? “Half cash, half stock” Cohen replies, after more eye rolling and disdain. And then he appears to get stuck in a loop, like a rubbish sleepy robot.

Watch the entire interview if you like, but it’s pretty hard to get through it, honestly.

Going along with that very bizarre interview was the sudden appearance of all kinds of video game memorabilia, with some of it appearing to come directly from the “vault” that had been kept by GameStop’s Game Informer magazine, before Cohen shuttered it.

The stunt follows criticisms that the executive doesn’t have enough cash to actually make that acquisition. But it appears that at least some of the items being auctioned could be remnants looted from the legendary Game Informer Vault, where the long-running publication housed decades of video game history before GameStop shut down the publication in 2024.

Sources close to the situation who spoke under the condition of anonymity told Kotaku that while some of the products in Cohen’s eBay listings, such as the baseball cards, weren’t from the Game Informer Vault, other items, including some rare retro games, likely were. Some details like the sticky tab on the front of the sealed copy of Dracula for the NES and the sealed casings on copies of Yoshi’s Cookie and F1 Pole Position match photos and descriptions from the Vault verified by Kotaku.

Now, the Kotaku article suggests that Cohen is selling these items as an effort to raise money for the eBay bid. That’s a very silly thing to suggest. We’re talking about a $16 billion shortfall, unless Cohen plans to seriously dilute the stock value of current shareholders. Historical gaming items like we’re talking about, while certainly of import and value, aren’t going to net you $16 billion.

But it’s worth noting how cavalier Cohen is being here with very real gaming history and culture. It’s not surprise that the Video Game History Foundation and others are pointing out how an eBay auction like this is going to scatter all of this cultural history to the wind, and what a shame that is.

Video Game History Foundation founder Frank Cifaldi posted on Bluesky accusing Cohen of selling off items from the Vault. Though Game Informer has since returned as a print publication after the outlet was acquired and revived by Gunzilla Games in 2025, the Vault and all the contents found inside remained GameStop property.

“I’m very happy Game Informer is out from under GameStop, but choices like these remind people of the brutal closure of the magazine in 2024,” MinnMax founder and ex-Game Informer video producer Ben Hanson said in a statement to Kotaku. “Game Informer‘s history belongs in a museum, not some schmuck’s eBay listings. Show some love to the current Game Informer crew, subscribe to the physical magazine, and please try to ignore Ryan Cohen’s pleas for attention.”

Will GameStop actually buy eBay? I very much doubt it. I don’t think the company can pull off this kind of leverage while maintaining a credit rating post-acquisition that would satisfy the banking investment requirements as outlined in Cohen’s own financing letter. Moody’s doesn’t seem to think so, either.

Somewhat hilariously, Cohen’s own eBay account was also suspended shortly after he began auctioning these items off. But if he really wants to sell off the Game Informer vault, he’ll find a way. And that is a damned shame from a gaming preservation standpoint.

Filed Under: ryan cohen, wtf

Companies: ebay, gamestop