Is Your Flappy Bird Phone Now a Collector's Item?

Flappy Bird is an albatross.

Game developer Dong Nguyen tweeted on Saturday that he “cannot take this anymore." This being the massively overhyped phenomenon that is his mobile timewaster. While Nguyen considers Flappy Bird a success (and who wouldn’t at $50,000 in ad revenue a day), he just flat out hates it now for ruining his “simple life." The game that doesn’t love you back has been pulled from the Apple and Android app stores, meaning no new customers can download it.

The good news for Flappy Addicts is that if you already installed it, the game could theoretically live on your phone forever. You could also theoretically make a bundle by selling the intact phone to a desperate late adopter.

Nguyen gave a 22-hour warning before officially pulling the game on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Since then, eBay has exploded with offers to sell Flappy Bird-installed devices. One eBay user, Marco_itg, listed a Samsung Galaxy S 4 with a Buy It Now price of $1,000,000. Not surprising, there haven’t been any takers. Another electronics eBayer, Damirperic, listed an iPad Air for $80,000 and in the last eight hours, it has received four bids bringing it up to $81,100.

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According to latest eBay results, 11 Flappy Bird-installed devices have been sold, with one of the most expensive being an iPhone 5S for $10,100. (However, that doesn’t mean the buyer actually came through with payment. One good joke deserves another.)

If you’re determined to jump on this train after it’s pulled out of the station, this used iPhone 5S has a starting bid of only $100 and it comes with a whooping high score of 143, so you don't even have to waste time playing the game to show off to your friends.

Happy birding.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/02/your-flappy-bird-phone-now-collectors-item/357919/

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