Apple and Google have removed TikTok and various other ByteDance apps from their app stores, so users who want the app have taken to eBay to buy a whole new phone.
On January 18, 2025, Google and Apple removed TikTok and a slew of other ByteDance apps from their respective app stores.
This came as enforcement of TikTok’s ban in the US was set to take place, which could have led to both companies being fined $5,000 per user who downloaded or updated their app after January 19.
Despite President Trump signing an Executive Order pausing enforcement of the ban and the potential fines, users who have uninstalled TikTok are still unable to re-download it.
As a result, many people are looking for ways to access the short-form video platform, and some are taking to eBay to buy a whole new phone in the process.
iPhones with TikTok installed are selling in droves
Ever since the apps were removed on January 18, hundreds – if not thousands – of iPhones with TikTok installed have been sold to users across the country.
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Looking at sold listings on eBay, most are only going for a slightly elevated price compared to the current value of the phone. Others, however, have managed to sell their devices for an outrageous price.
One sold listing shows an iPhone 14 Pro Max with 256GB of storage that sold for $2,500, a whole $1,300 over Apple’s MSRP when the phone launched in 2022. An iPhone 15 Pro Max with the same storage says it was listed for $4,000, and sold after the seller accepted a buyer’s offer, although it’s impossible to tell how much it actually went for.
Another iPhone, a base model 15 Pro with both TikTok and CapCut installed on the device has sold for $13,997 – a truly outrageous price for an iPhone as it’s almost exactly $13k higher than Apple’s $999 MSRP for the device when it launched in 2023.
However, listings like that are sometimes scams done by the seller to bait buyers into thinking the value is higher than it is by not completing the sale once the auction is over – so it’s hard to tell if the money ever actually exchanged hands.
This isn’t the first time iPhone owners have sold their phones for high prices because of an app, either. Back in 2014, iPhones were sold on eBay with Flappy Bird installed after the developer decided to pull the game from the iOS App Store.
