I also bricked my first Yotaphone 2 trying to upgrade to Lollipop
When I realised the price had gone down so dramatically, I ordered a second one immediately. It was about €150 on Aliexpress, where the prices are now as low as €120, with free shipping to EU (you still have to pay customs though). Mine updated itself to Lollipop as soon as I connected to the wifi. It came in an unopened box and was clearly brand new.
It worked fine out of the box but then gave me a big scare when I installed my apps: the phone kept locking the screen while I was using it, and ignored my attempts to unlock it. I tried a lot of things to no avail, until I finally figured out it was caused by an app (which had worked fine on my previous Androids for years). I uninstalled it and no problems since. Great to own this unique phone again!