People are selling used iPhones with TikTok pre-installed for astronomical prices on eBay and Facebook Marketplace

• Some people sell their used iPhones and advertise that they have TikTok pre-installed.

• TikTok is not available for download in the US Apple and Google Play stores.

• Now, iPhones with apps are listed on eBay and Facebook Marketplace at prices well above retail.

People on eBay and Facebook Marketplace are coming up with a new way to market their used iPhones – taking advantage of TikTok’s removal from US app stores.

Sellers on these marketplaces have listed used iPhones well above their retail prices and advertised in the listing that the devices have the banned social media app pre-installed.

According to BI’s scan of eBay early Friday morning, hundreds of ads for used iPhones contained keywords such as “iPhone,” “TikTok installed” and “unlocked. At press time, the search term “iPhone TikTok” returned more than 45,000 results on the shopping platform.

The same is the case with Facebook Marketplace, where a search for the term “iPhone TikTok” returned hundreds of listings.

Some lists also indicated that the products would supplied with CapCutthe video editing app from ByteDance, installed. To prove that apps are installed, several vendors included screen recordings and screenshots of the phones showing apps on the screen.

While most are newer models like the iPhone 14, 15, 16 and the Pro variants, some sellers are also trying to let go of older models like the iPhone 7. An eBay listing List a used iPhone 7 for $3,000.

And it’s not just the amount of ads that’s remarkable – it’s the prices too.

First was an “iPhone 14 with THE LATEST UPDATE of TikTok & CapCut” on Facebook Marketplace listed early Friday for $20,000. And an “Apple iPhone 8 Plus – TIKTOK & CAP CUT – Gold (unlocked)” was listed for $3,363 on Friday.

BI also saw eBay listings priced in the six figures — including one for a black Apple iPhone 15 Pro “with Tik-Tok and cap-cut,” listed for more than $4.9 million.

For reference, the iPhone 7’s pricing started at $649 when it was released in 2016, per Apple’s press release that year.

According to Apple’s pricing at press time, the iPhone 14 to 16 models cost between $599 and $1,599.

And some buyers are already making moves on eBay. At press time, one listing on eBay, an iPhone 15 Pro Max going for $461, had received 61 bids.

Representatives for eBay and Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Online marketplaces abound amid the TikTok unrest

BI’s scan of both platforms on Friday morning showed that most of the TikTok-loaded iPhone listings on eBay and Facebook Marketplace were published this week.

TikTok got dark for its 170 million US users on Sunday, a day before the Supreme Court’s deadline for the app to shut down its US operations and comply with its divestment-or-ban law.

But hours later it is operations were restored. On Monday, shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a announcement to pause the ban, giving TikTok another 75 days to devise a game plan.

While users who already had TikTok installed on their devices can continue to use it, Apple pulled the app from its US app stores on Sunday, preventing new downloads.

A Sunday announcement on Apple’s website read: “TikTok and ByteDance Ltd. apps are no longer available in the United States, and visitors to the United States may have limited access to features. Apple is committed to following the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates.”

Google Play has also removed TikTok from its platform.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas – who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — and Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska wrote in a joint statement on Sunday praises tech companies for complying with TikTok ban.

“We commend Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft for following the law and ceasing operations with ByteDance and TikTok, and we encourage other companies to do the same. After all, the law risks devastating bankruptcy for any company that violates it.” said the statement.

Trump said he would be open to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison to buy TikTok to keep it operating in the country and said the US should owns half of the app.

Representatives for TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

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