TikTok Ban Effect: Smartphones With App Installed Hit Ebay - eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY)

App stores from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) currently don’t allow users to download TikTok due to uncertainty about whether it will be permanently banned in the U.S.

But a person without TikTok has at least one route to getting the app.

What Happened: As Benzinga recently predicted, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) has phones already with TikTok on them up for auction.

A quick look at eBay Thursday with the search "phone with TikTok" generated over 21,000 results. Many of the listings do not have bids with prices ranging from hundreds of dollars to thousands. Sorting the results by sold items, there are over 100 items that have actually sold.

Here are some of the latest sales at the time of writing Thursday:

iPhone 11: $125.99
iPhone 15 Pro Max: Unknown price, took best offer from a $25,000 listing price
iPhone 15: $100.00
iPhone 15 Pro Max: $600.00
Samsung Galaxy S24: $4.00

Going back through the listings there are several high sales prices, which include:

iPhone 16 Pro Max Gold Gray: $12,999.99
Samsung Ultra 3 Note: $5,500
iPhone 15 Plus: $1,200
iPhone 15 Pro Max: $10,000
iPhone 15 Pro Max: $11,000

The eBay sale prices are what an auction listing closed at or what someone agreed to pay. The big question is whether people are actually paying for the phones and having them shipped. Some of the winning bidders had relatively new or seldom used eBay accounts based on the feedback score, an eBay metric that ranks buyers and sellers.

There is also risk for phone buyers as they can use their ID to sign into apps, but any restores or backups could disrupt the app. Essentially, buying a phone with TikTok could be a waiting game for the app to be banned and ByteDance to turn off access in America or until the user messes up the app settings. There is also the risk of buying the phone only for the TikTok ban to end and everyone being able to download the app for free again.

Why It's Important: The U.S. ban of TikTok could mean missed revenue opportunities for content creators. TikTok users might have another revenue source while they await the outcome of the pending ban.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order to temporarily stop the ban of TikTok in the U.S.

While the order kept TikTok parent ByteDance from ending the use of TikTok in the U.S., the outcome of the social media app remains uncertain.

Trump recently proposed that the U.S. should have a 50% stake in a joint venture, the Associated Press reported. It’s unclear whether he meant the government would control the app or another U.S. entity.

The president recently said he was open to a billionaire like Larry Ellison or Elon Musk buying TiKTok and several interested parties have previously emerged, including a group with "Shark Tank's" Kevin O'Leary.

A quick search for TikTok on the Google Play Store brings up the current result: "Looking for TikTok? Downloads for this app are paused due to current US legal requirements."

While TikTok could find its way back on app stores, the sale of phones with one specific app is not new.

As Benzinga previously reported, some owners of iPhones with the mobile game “Fortnite” downloaded on them listed their phones for sale on eBay in 2020, as reported by PCMag. The move came after “Fortnite” owner Epic Games decided to skirt Apple’s 30% cut of payments by offering a direct payment option. Apple removed the game from its app store, which kicked off a lengthy battle between the two companies.

Users also tried to sell their phones with mobile game “Flappy Bird” for high amounts of money back in 2014, as reported by PCMag. The creator of the hit game pulled it from app stores after it hit number one and saw huge usage. One phone reached a price of $99,900 on eBay before the auction company took the listing down.

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