TikTok loaded phones are selling for thousands online after momentary ban

Some of TikTok’s 170 million U.S.-based users are selling phones with the social media app preloaded on them for thousands of dollars online.

Parent company ByteDance voluntarily shut down the TIkTok app in the U.S. Sunday, hours before a deadline to either sell the app or have it banned over concerns related to its China ties. TikTok was momentarily unavailable to U.S.-based users, before President Donald Trump on Monday paused a ban on the app operating in the U.S. from going into effect.  

Over the weekend, even those who had already downloaded the app to their phones were not able to use it, before it became available again. While service has since been restored for existing users, the app is still not available download in U.S.-based app stores, and so it remains unavailable to anyone who hadn’t previously downloaded it. 

Now phones that already have TikTok installed on them are suddenly a hot commodity. Dozens of listings for phones and tablets that already have the app have since cropped up on platforms including the online marketplace eBay.

Among them is an eBay listing for a device that’s described as a brand-new Apple Iphone 16 Pro Max containing TikTok for $50,000, or “Best Offer.” According to eBay’s site, nearly 80 shoppers are keeping their eyes on the listing. 

Other similar listings abound, including devices that are listed for sale for just hundreds of dollars. Some of the listings advertise phones with active TikTok accounts, while others say the app is installed, but not linked to an account. EBay did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment on the listings. 

TikTok’s U.S. users are not targeted by the ban, which President Trump has paused until early April. But the law, Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would make it illegal for app stores from Google or Apple, as well as web-hosting services, to distribute or service TikTok.