Pay for free photos on your phone? Thumbplay thinks you’ll jump at it

Thumbplay and Photobucket are teaming up to charge you $2. OK, the press release was a bit more detailed, but that is the salient point. You see, the two are working in cahoots to sell you user submitted photos to Photobucket that have been optimized for your phone’s wallpaper. Is that worth $2?

Apparently Thumbplay is the world’s #1 mobile entertainment site outside of carrier sites. I didn’t know that. They have games, ringtones, videos, and even music for sale. Buying an MP3 will put you on a subscription plan for $9.99 per month and will subject you to SMS advertising and newsletters. Awesome stuff. Buying a photo will not incur membership fees.

Users have made this wallpaper (shown at right) #3 on the popularity list. I didn’t check to see, but I suspect “#2 Girlfriend medal” was somewhere around 12 in popularity.