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‘$10,000 easy’: T-Mobile worker says your iPhone could be worth thousands. Here’s what to check for

‘You can absolutely do this.’

Photo of Braden Bjella

Braden Bjella

2 panel image: on the left is the exterior of a T-Mobile store and on the right a person explains

While the TikTok ban has been postponed for another 75 days, that doesn’t mean creators aren’t still nervous about the future of the app. 

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The lack of clarity around the law meant that many were unsure of what would happen on the day of the ban. Would the app slowly break down as it failed to receive updates or simply go dark?

In reality, the app briefly showed a message saying that the law had made their services temporarily unavailable. Then they changed the message to indicate that President Trump said he would work with the app to keep it running.

The future of the app is uncertain—but the TikTok app is unavailable on the Apple App Store. So if you’re someone who still has the app downloaded, you may be able to convert that into cash.

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How could the TikTok app improve your phone’s resale value?

In a video with over 58,000 views, TikTok user and T-Mobile employee Zha’Kamri (@zhakamri) explains how one can sell their phone with the TikTok app for thousands of dollars.

“So I’ve seen where people are selling their iPhones for $10,000 and upward if they still have TikTok,” Zha’Kamri states. “And people are in the comments like, ‘Oh, you can’t sell it without selling your Apple ID.’ You can absolutely do this.”

He then details how one can sell their phone while leaving the TikTok app intact.

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“What you need to do is leave the TikTok app and just sign out of the App Store and sign out of your iCloud account, turn off Find My iPhone, delete anything out of that phone that person doesn’t want other than TikTok or anything you don’t want them to see other than TikTok,” he shares. “$10,000 easy.”

Can you really sell an iPhone with TikTok for this much money?

After the ban, news stories flooded in about people successfully selling iPhones with TikTok pre-installed on them on sites like eBay. It’s similar to how users flooded the auction site with phones containing Flappy Bird when that app went dark.

That said, it’s unclear how many, if any, sold for the high prices at which they were listed. While phones were listed for over a million dollars, all verified sales appear to be substantially lower. Newsweek noted that the prices on eBay’s “sold” listings do not say whether a lower offer was accepted and, if it was, what price was paid for the item.

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As the United States has around 170 million TikTok users, and over 50% of smartphone users in the U.S. have iPhones, it’s unlikely that an iPhone containing TikTok will be able to command a high price.

Even if one received an iPhone with the TikTok app, it’s unlikely the app would work if the user were still in the United States after the ban. When the brief ban was in place, users reported that VPNs would not allow them to access the app—indicating that the ban was based on certain details about the user’s phone or profile rather than what location they said their phone was in.

@zhakamri

make this lil play if you can 💰💸💵

♬ original sound – Zha’Kamri

Commenters share their thoughts

In the comments section, users expressed their skepticism about whether people would really be willing to pay that much for a phone with TikTok.

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“I don’t believe it…that people would buy iPhone for TikTok,” wrote a user.

“Like the stock markets there’s gonna be a crash,” added another.

“I couldn’t give up TikTok for 10k tho. My time waster is priceless,” offered a third.

The Daily Dot reached out to Zha’Kamri via TikTok comment and DM, and to T-Mobile via email.

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Update Feb. 1, 2024, 7:48am:

In a TikTok direct message conversation with the Daily Dot, the creator explained that his video was less about being able to sell the phone for a high price and more about how “there’s a misconception that you can’t sell your phone while leaving the TikTok app without leaving your personal information and your accounts, and this is simply not true.”

That said, he claimed that he had seen several iPhones with TikTok commanding high prices.

“I’ve seen one go for 4,500, and another for 6,000,” he stated. “With the news, though, the market has become saturated so now they’re selling a little slower than they were before everyone knew.”

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