John Gruber linked last week to this Reuters story about Anker—a China-based electronics company—raising its prices in the face of the crushing 145% tariffs Donald Trump has petulantly imposed on China. Gruber writes:

Tariffs driving up consumer prices is as sure a thing as rain making you wet. But it’s worth pointing to the evidence as it comes in, because unlike rain’s wetness, the “emperor sure does have clothes” MAGA contingent is trying to argue that tariffs don’t have this obvious effect.

This report of higher prices comes from “e-commerce services provider” SmartScout, and references an investor call on which Anker reportedly talked about raising prices, but the story provides no product examples or pricing differences.

Anker raising prices is distressing, partly because higher prices is rotten for consumers in general, but in particular because Anker makes great products, often best in class—and therefore I buy a lot of stuff from them! I’m pretty sure I’ve bought more Anker products than any other brand—with the sole exception of Apple.

I purchase most of my Anker gear through Amazon, so, being the curious sort, I checked my order history to see what I last paid, and compare it against current prices.

I’ve ordered 33 Anker products since 2014; my first one was, fittingly, a 5-port USB charger. Many of those items are no longer available. In 2024, I bought seven items, all still for sale (surprisingly, no Anker purchases in 2025—yet):

(Amazon links make me filthy rich when you click on them. Here’s more about my use of affiliate links.)

Prices can fluctuate daily, so this is merely a snapshot in time, but as I’m writing this, four out of my seven items are selling for less than I paid for them last year. The two items showing significant increases (the 150W USB-C 4-Port Charger and 24,000 mAh Portable Charger) appear to be the result of especially good deals when I bought them, as they seem to regularly sell right around the current prices, as tracked by CamelCamelCamel.

I used the CamelCamelCamel browser extension to spot-check about a hundred more Anker products, both “new arrivals” and “best sellers” (as determined by Amazon’s algorithms). Prices seem to follow the general pattern shown in the two charts above: mostly steady, with the occasional dip. Some products have above-average recent prices, but current selling prices remain at or below the average.

(If you’re interested in tracking prices for Amazon products, I recommend CamelCamelCamel. You can get notified when prices hit desired levels, and the browser extension is especially handy for bringing up historic pricing charts for the item you’re currently eyeballing.)

I’ll acknowledge that most of these items were likely produced, shipped, and warehoused long before Trump started his ill-advised trade war, and may therefore remain untouched by tariffs. New items—possibly with name changes to thwart easy price comparisons—are certain to become more expensive, because that’s what tariffs do. My very unscientific survey shows little evidence of this happening yet—but the increases are coming. It is, as Gruber writes, “as sure a thing as rain making you wet.”