iPhone's with TikTok installed are being sold on eBay for $50,000

The banning of TikTok across the United States and its unavailability in both app marketplaces has created enough demand that people are now selling smartphones with the app installed.

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TikTok was banned across the United States on January 19 as the US government determined last year the app was a national security risk for its ties to the Chinese government. The banning involved the app being removed from both app marketplaces (iOS and the Play Store), and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were banned from hosting the service.

However, the latter part of the ban has now been revoked thanks to President Trump's 75-day extension he granted, but the app still isn't available on app marketplaces, meaning users who didn't already have the app downloaded on their device aren't able to access it.

This unavailability of the app has created enough demand for devices with the app already installed that they are now being sold on eBay for thousands of dollars, with one listing even going as high as $50,000 for an iPhone 15 Pro Max with TikTok installed. Other listings also range in the thousands of dollars, as this one is priced at $4,995, and another is priced at $7,500 -- but for an iPhone 14, a smartphone that is typically priced at around the $350 to $450 mark (second-hand).

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If you are wondering if there are just a few listings for smartphones with TikTok installed, Wired reports that approximately 9,000 listings are currently available on eBay.

Are people actually buying them? Using the eBay "completed sales" filter, we can see there's a big discrepancy between the listing price and what the seller decided to let the smartphone actually go for. However, one lucky seller did manage to sell their iPhone 16 Pro Max for an astonishing $12,999, but there's always the possibility that it's a phony sale, possibly by the seller themselves on a different account.

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