iPhone with TikTok still installed are selling for insane prices since the ban over the weekend.
America's TikTok ban didn't turn out as intended, and as the Supreme Court ruled against the short-term video platform and pulled it from all U.S. devices, the January 19 ban sent everything dark. It didn't take long for President Donald Trump to post "SAVETIKTOK" on his Truth Social platform, and just 12 hours after the ban, TikTok confirmed it was in the process of restoring access across the USA.
Things moved at breakneck speed after Trump vowed to sign an executive order extending the period that the Chinese-owned ByteDance would have to sell the app's U.S. operations. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew made a surprise appearance alongside the world's biggest tech bros at Trump's January 20 inauguration, while the POTUS' promises to sign an executive order flew through.
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TikTok's regular 170 million monthly users have access to their precious videos, with Trump being hailed as the app's savior, but you're not out of the woods yet.
Senator Tom Cotton posted on X, warning that any "company that hosts, distributes, services, or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law." TikTok is currently off the Apple App Store, which has led to a bizarre side effect of TikTok-loaded iPhones going for ridiculous sums online.
In a complicated turn of events, TikTok is still live but you can't download it onto new devices. The scalpers are making the most of this, and a quick scan of eBay shows apparently genuine listings for TikTok iPhones for thousands of dollars.
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One jaw-dropping listing includes an Apple iPhone 16, pre-loaded with TikTok, priced at $50,000. We're not sure of the legitimacy of this or if someone is having a laugh, but elsewhere, there's an iPhone 16 Pro Max for $21,959.00 (or accepting a best offer) and an iPhone 15 Pro Max for $3,500.
Others seem to be genuinely drumming up interest, as at the time of writing, there are 33 bids on an iPhone 11 (currently sitting at $160.50) and seven bids on an iPhone 15 Pro Max (now at $155.50).
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It seems unlikely that the ones going for thousands will actually sell, but at the lower end of the spectrum, there's soaring interest in pre-owned TikTok iPhones.
When Pubity shared it on Instagram, there were plenty of hilarious comments. One skeptic wrote: "If you bought one of these hmu I’ve got some air to sell you."
Another added: "Okay but are people actually paying that much cuz i’ll sell my phone right now?"
A third concluded, "Flappy Bird walked so TikTok could run" - referring to when iPhones featuring the defunct mobile game were being listed for $90,000.
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Interestingly, the Flappy Bird phones were supposedly pulled for violating eBay's rules that smartphones have to be restored to factory settings before resale, meaning some people could be about to buy some very expensive iPhones without getting their TikTok fix.
As the likes of Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson rush to try and buy TikTok's U.S. operations, we'd hold off on selling our old iPhones for now.