Are you ready for a bizarre footnote in the Galaxy Note 7 saga? First picked up by SamMobile and attributed to Korean outlet The Investor (which has made its name in recent weeks with some questionable Galaxy S8 rumors), the story goes that notoriously fire-prone handset might go on sale again in 2017 — at least in emerging markets like India and Vietnam.

[Samsung] is expected to sell the refurbished products of its handset from next year, according to sources. "Samsung has not made a final decision yet, but it will likely sell the refurbished Note 7 units next year," an industry source said. The source anticipated the refurbished handsets will be mostly sold in emerging markets such as India and Vietnam where low-end and mid-range smartphones are popular.

Except that probably won't happen. The story has been picked up by multiple outlets in recent days, however the original source is a report dated September 26, a few weeks before the Note 7 was killed off for good. Back when the original story was published — with supposedly "safe" Note 7s being sent out to consumers under the recall program — it was absolutely realistic that Samsung might want to replace the internals of the old "unsafe" models and sell them on as refurbs. Right now, after a second recall and subsequent cancellation? No way.

As it stands, there's no such thing as a "safe" Note 7, and a full-page ad run in U.S. newspapers last week suggested the company was still investigating what was making the phones go boom.

So the Note 7 is still dead, and probably isn't ever going back on sale. All the standard arguments against a return for the product still apply. The Note 7 is a joke, and its brand is terminally damaged. Samsung is surely hoping to just sweep the whole thing under some kind of giant, fire-retardant rug at this point, and instead focus on the Galaxy S8.