- Used phones with TikTok already downloaded are going for a pretty penny as the app remains unavailable on third-party stores, while Trumps seeks an American buyer.
Used phones preloaded with TikTok are being resold on websites like Facebook and eBay for thousands of dollars.
While TikTok is active again are briefly shutting down last weekend, the platform remains unavailable on the App Store and Google Play. So anyone who deleted the app can’t redownload it.
Across Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and other online storefronts, unlocked phones with TikTok preinstalled are apparently a hot ticket. While actual transactions are unconfirmed, phones are going for thousands of dollars—and even tens of thousands of dollars.
Eden Miller listed their iPhone 15 with TikTok on Facebook Market, asking for $9,000. By contrast, Apple's price for a new iPhone 16 starts at $799.
“I heard there's a high value market on them,” Miller told Fortune. “Hopefully it's worth my asking price.”
While $9,000 seems a bit steep for a phone that has someone else's data all over it, that’s not even the upper echelon of asking prices.
New York native Nicholas Matthews listed his iPhone 14 Plus with TikTok for $10,000, according to the Associated Press, though his highest bid reached more than $4,500.
The AP also reported that some prices were as high as $50,000 on eBay.
Others are taking to online storefronts to promote their $50 TikTok installation service as a way to get around the App Store barrier.
“At this time we’re able to still download and install it with a quick trick which allows you to download it from Apple’s servers,” Facebook Marketplace lister Toby Davis told Fortune.
Last weekend, TikTok went dark as an impending ban from the U.S. government loomed. Additionally, Apple and Google took all of the apps created by its Chinese parent company ByteDance off of its servers.
In addition to TikTok, the other apps include TikTok Studio, TikTok Shop Seller Center, CapCut, Lemon8, Gauth, and MARVEL SNAP.
In a release on Jan. 19, Apple said that users that had the apps previously installed will remain on their devices, but they will not update and cannot be redownloaded or restored if deleted.
“Apple is obligated to follow the laws in jurisdictions where it operates,” the company said.
While President Donald Trump has put the TikTok ban on hold temporarily, it will go dark again if ByteDance doesn’t sell it to a U.S. buyer soon.
Trump has indicated that a deal will get done to bring TikTok into American hands within the next 30 days, with rumors circulating about Oracle. When asked if a deal was in place with Oracle, Trump dismissed the speculation.
“No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days. Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing,” Trump told reporters this weekend.
