GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen accused of auctioning items tied to Game Informer’s Vault

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has been accused of auctioning off items linked to Game Informer’s “Vault,” a trove of video game history associated with the long-running magazine.

According to Kotaku, Cohen launched an eBay auction on May 6, 2026, saying the sales were intended to help fund a proposed $56 billion bid to acquire eBay. The move follows GameStop’s 2024 closure of Game Informer, which later relaunched in 2025 under new ownership.

Allegations over the Vault

Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video Game History Foundation, publicly accused Cohen of selling historical artifacts from the Game Informer Vault.

Kotaku cited anonymous sources close to the situation who said some items in the listings—such as baseball cards—were not from the Vault, but that several rare retro games likely were. The sources pointed to details that they said matched known descriptions of Vault items, including a sticky tab on a sealed NES copy of Dracula and sealed casings on copies of Yoshi’s Cookie and F1 Pole Position.

A former Game Informer employee told Kotaku the Vault had been treated as a library rather than a collection intended for auction.

eBay account suspension

The origin of at least one listed item, a Fallout 4 Vault Boy statue, could not be confirmed, as similar statues were distributed to GameStop stores and other media outlets, Kotaku reported.

Cohen’s eBay account was suspended on May 7, 2026, for unspecified “activity that doesn't follow our rules.”