TikTok’s total ban in the United States didn’t last long, but it still can’t be downloaded on new devices. Some phones with TikTok installed are being listed for sale at sky-high prices, but it’s unclear if anyone is actually paying those prices.
TikTok briefly shut down in the US on January 18th, 2025, ahead of the official enforcement date of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA). The app came back online after President-elect Donald Trump promised to delay the ban, and after he took office, he signed an executive order that blocked enforcement of the law for at least 75 days. Even though TikTok is operational again, the social network (or at least the part in the US) still officially needs to be sold to another group not considered by the US as a “foreign adversary.”
The Apple App Store and Google Play Store don’t currently allow TikTok to be downloaded, as the app is still technically banned. This has inspired many people to list phones and tablets with TikTok installed for sale, primarily on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. There have also been many news articles and social media posts pointing out this trend, like one CBS News article stating phones with TikTok “are selling for thousands online.”
It’s not clear if anyone is actually buying phones with TikTok installed. At the time of writing, a search for “tiktok iphone” on eBay filtered to US listings shows “86,000+ results,” but only 596 results for sold listings. Some of those listings are devices sold for average or below-average prices, like an $86 final bid for an AT&T iPhone 11 with TikTok, or an iPhone 15 Pro Max with TikTok sold for $530.
Most of the listings with excessive prices, like a $30K iPhone 14 Pro Max and a $5K iPhone 15 Pro Max, are labelled as “Best offer accepted.” That could mean someone offered $5 and the seller accepted. eBay auctions can be set up to not require immediate payment, and it’s also possible for buyers to cancel purchases if they haven’t shipped yet, so even listings that appear as ‘sold’ possibly didn’t even sell. A similar trend happened when the popular game Flappy Bird was pulled from app stores in 2014, resulting in sky-high listings for phones with the game still downloaded.
Many of these listings are probably just jokes, while others might be more serious attempts to cash in on perceived demand for overpriced TikTok-bundled iPhones. The recent executive order stated that TikTok is being used by 170 million Americans, so phones with TikTok still installed aren’t rare enough to justify higher prices. The listings are pretty funny, though.
