IPHONES with TikTok installed have been listed for thousands on eBay as the app remains unavailable on US app stores.
While President Donald Trump has paused the TikTok ban, fans still anxiously await the short-video platform‘s return to Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Some looking to capitalise off the TikTok turmoil have put their iPhones with the app downloaded on sale for eyewatering prices.
One iPhone with TikTok, TikTok Studio and TikTok’s video editing app Capcut installed has been listed for as much as $111,000 (£90,000) on eBay.
Other devices, in varying model types and only TikTok installed, have been listed for up to $50,000 (£40,500).
Some have been listed in the mid-hundreds and low-thousands, depending on their model type and condition.
Most TikTok handsets are being sold from the US.
Though there are other listings from the UK promising “fast shipping to America”.
It’s unclear if the iPhones with TikTok installed are selling, but most listings do not have any active bids.
US users with the app installed on their phones can still access TikTok, even after the brief ban on Sunday.
However, users who deleted or never downloaded the app remain locked out until TikTok returns to app stores.
It’s unclear when TikTok will make its way back to app stores, despite Trump signing an executive order to delay enforcing the ban.
The 'Flappy Bird' effect
By Millie Turner, Senior Technology & Science Reporter
TikTok is not the first app to cause such a flurry – and it likely won’t be the last.
Remember Flappy Bird? The tap-happy game that took the world by storm in 2013.
It was a sensation, particularly among children, and inspired dozens of imitators.
But at its height of popularity in 2014, when it was making $50,000 (£38,000) a day from in-app ads, lone creator Dong Nguyen removed it from app stores.
There were a number of rumours as to what prompted the shock disappearance.
The truth, is that Nguyen felt guilty about the game’s addictive nature.
“I am sorry ‘Flappy Bird’ users, 22 hours from now, I will take ‘Flappy Bird’ down,” he tweeted at the time.
“I cannot take this anymore.”
Fairly soon after the app was removed, phones with Flappy Bird still installed were being listed on eBay for anywhere between $300 (£243) and $90,000 (£73,000).
Dozens of enterprising eBay sellers began piggybacking on the popularity of the free game to make a quick buck.
While most listings sat around the $300 to $5,000 mark – one auction reached as high as $90,000, The Guardian reported at the time.