GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen Takes Power to the People Message Direct to eBay Sellers
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has been busy making the financial and business media rounds this week, but still found time to take his "power to the people" message direct to eBay sellers, sharing his passion and vision for the platform with seller, YouTuber, and Flipwise co-founder Justin Glow.
The ~45 minute discussion ranged from Ryan's viral eBay account suspension to more serious topics about what a successful GameStop takeover bid would mean for eBay sellers.
When asked what he thinks about selling and ad fees currently being a driver of revenue for the company, Cohen said, "I would want long-term revenue growth coming from increasing transaction volume and I would look to increase efficiency in terms of reducing cost first before disincentivizing sellers to sell on the platform."
When eBay last faced activist pressure from Elliott Management in 2019, constant site glitches and technical misexecution were called out explicitly as one of the major problems at the company.
7 years later, it's shocking just how much of Elliott's "Enhancing eBay" plan still rings true today - particularly critiques around glitches constantly plaguing the platform and lack of leadership prioritizing operational and technical excellence.
Mazen Rawashdeh, who was Chief Infrastructure and Architecture Officer at that time, was promoted to Chief Technology Officer in 2019, a title he still retains today.
Notably, eBay just experienced significant business disruption with rolling outages stretching over 5 days.
Was it a hacktivist DDoS attack or simply technical incompetence? We don't know - and current CEO Jamie Iannone and CFO Peggy Alford successfully avoided being asked any questions about it on the Q1 2026 earnings call.
Liz Morton
Cohen's answer to a question about how he thinks about integrating with third party partners (like Justin's Flipwise app) may also give some insight into how he'd handle technical issues at eBay, as well as development and innovation.
"I keep things really simple...I have my head of engineering and a few of my top programmers and I put them into a war room and I call you up and I say 'Justin, what's the problem? How do we make things better?'"
"And I say, 'Okay, I want to get these things done right now. Now, now, now, now'...then it's up to me to stay on top of everyone to make sure that that stuff gets done immediately. That's how I do business."
Sellers who were dismayed when eBay shut down social support on Facebook and X will be happy to hear that Cohen believes some of the exorbitant marketing spend on eBay's books could and should be reallocated to provide live support on X and a 24/7 phone line to help customers on the spot.
When asked if he feels an investment in better supporting sellers would naturally bring in buyers, Cohen said:
"Yeah, you make the sellers happy. You make their lives easier. You have more inventory. You bring more inventory onto the platform and you're going to get buyers."
He also addressed concerns about trying to turn eBay into Amazon, providing more context around comments he's made in other recent interviews.
"The goal is to make a much better, faster, owner-run eBay. It's that simple. And if you do that well...it would be a much larger business. And I talk about like scale and market opportunity within eBay's existing categories and then new categories that make sense. But it's not to go head-to-head against Amazon at its own game."
In closing, Justin asked Ryan what he would say to sellers who are still skeptical:
"You tell me what are my ideas that are really really stupid...I made mistakes at GameStop and I ended up pivoting and fixing them. So that would be my ask is communication and you tell me what are the things that make sense as someone who's entire livelihood depends on it and the things where you're like Ryan that's a really stupid idea."
"...I like to get to the right answer as efficiently as possible. So that's what I'd ask for: you're plugged in with the seller community, tell me what makes sense and what doesn't make sense."
That's the kind of engagement sellers have been hungry for for years - and stands in stark contrast to what they've gotten under current management.
Notably, the comments section on eBay's YouTube channel remains closed to comments, while Justin's video has already garnered over 700 comments that express far more enthusiasm than anything I've seen at any eBay seller event I've covered in the last 5 years.
Power to the players just met power to the sellers - it looks to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
