Latest news with #Keepa
Newsroom
03-08-2025
- Newsroom
An incident in Gate Pa
The Greerton Secondhand & Pawn Warehouse at 18 Wilrose Place (an address technically in the nearby suburb of Gate Pa) was a rust-coloured building on a dead-end street in an industrial part of town. Customers would visit the proprietor, 'Uncle' Stu Keepa, to flog their modest wares: antiques, furniture, machinery, tools, electronic goods and all other manner of bric-a-brac. One man's trash is another man's small profit margin. Keepa would take whatever could be fixed with a bit of spit and polish, then sell it off and come out a few bucks on top. Keepa, who was in his 50s, lived in one of two bedrooms upstairs at 18 Wilrose Place. The other was occupied by a woman who can't be identified (let's call her Annette), while another boarder, David Kuka, lived in a room downstairs at the back of the shop. The Greerton Secondhand & Pawn Warehouse also ran a little side hustle; it was well known in Tauranga's seedy underbelly as a place to buy drugs. It even had a nickname: 'The Trap'. Gang members would come and go from The Trap to visit Annette, who was selling meth, or Keepa's son, who was doing the same. Keepa himself wasn't directly selling drugs. But as someone who had been in the pawn game for 20 years, he also knew a lot of different people. If those customers were looking to score drugs instead of a second-hand bargain, Keepa could steer them in the right direction. So when a young woman named Kararaina Wihapi turned up at her cousin's doorstep in the early hours of New Year's Eve 2017 wanting $2000 worth of meth, the cousin (known as Lady Muck) reached out to Keepa. 'Hey was just seeing if you was on, after a biggie though, got 2k. Any good or not?' Lady Muck asked in a text message. Keepa replied: 'Okay my mate will go get it.' It was 4am. Keepa sent a driver to pick up Lady Muck's flatmate, MJ, who wanted to buy weed, and Wihapi, who had the $2000 stashed in her bra. They were chauffeured to Greerton Secondhand & Pawn Warehouse. MJ introduced Wihapi to Keepa. She discussed getting a 'quarter round one' – a quarter of an ounce, or 7 grams of meth – and Keepa said his 'bro was on the way'. His 'bro' was Colin Jefferies-Smith, a 26-year-old who lived at home with his parents in nearby Greerton. Jefferies-Smith was a street-level drug dealer, mainly in cannabis but he had recently started dabbling in meth. Meth is a lucrative business, but like most businesses, only the fat cats at the top of the supply chain make any serious money. Jefferies-Smith was at the other end of the scale, slinging 'dollar bags' (0.1 of a gram for $100) or 'quarter packs' (1 gram for $200) straight into the eager hands of consumers. He wasn't driving around Tauranga in a late-model Range Rover or Mercedes-Benz of the kind that the police regularly seize from successful drug dealers and gang members. His car was a beat-up silver Nissan Maxima, worth about $800, which his father had paid for just before Christmas. It wasn't much, but the jalopy was all Jefferies-Smith had. It would end up costing a life. This was because Colin Jefferies-Smith made the extremely poor decision to take Kararaina Wihapi's $2000, then fail to deliver his end of the bargain. Over the next few hours, angry phone calls and text messages were flying around. Wihapi didn't get the meth, or her money back. But she did get Jefferies-Smith's silver Maxima. Someone staged an intervention: Lance Waite. No one ever argued with Waite. Heavily tattooed, the 58-year-old was a senior member of the Mongrel Mob and held the position of sergeant-at-arms for the Notorious chapter. His job description was basically to serve as the chief bad-arse for the Mongrel Mob's most bad-arse group. He had been hanging around The Trap earlier that day, and was introduced to Kararaina Wihapi. The new acquaintances made a connection through common heritage – her uncle was also a Notorious Mobster – and Wihapi shared her misfortune at being $2000 out of pocket. Waite became her knight in shining armour. By failing to stump up with the meth, Colin Jefferies-Smith owed Wihapi $2000 but the money had somehow vanished, most probably to pay an outstanding debt of his own. Once Waite became involved in the discussions, Jefferies-Smith was persuaded to hand over some cash, thought to be around $1200, a few ounces of cannabis and the keys to his Nissan Maxima. The exchange was not down to Waite's silky diplomacy skills. It was a vivid illustration of the shadowy underworld practice known as 'taxing', where criminals – most often gang members, who have the fear factor of the patch on their back – extort cash, drugs or valuables from other criminals. There are different forms of 'taxing'. Sometimes the 'tax' is actually a euphemism for robbery, plain and simple, where the strong just take what they want from the weak. Other times the 'tax' is in the form of the repayment of a debt – real, perceived or invented – while on other occasions the 'tax' is demanded as a form of protection money to allow the weaker criminal, say for example a drug dealer, to carry on operating on the gang's territory. On every occasion, the consequence of failing to pay the 'tax' is violence, painful and prolonged. The criminal code of silence also means victims of 'taxing' are reluctant to make official complaints to police. More often, police learn about 'taxing' by talking to confidential informants or through hospital admissions, as a favoured tactic in recent years has been to shoot the taxee in the leg. The injury will leave the victim maimed, but alive. It's not just beatings and gunshot wounds, though; victims get stabbed, have their kneecaps broken with baseball bats or, in one horrific case, a blow torch was used as a torture device. Paying 'tax' is often seen as a cost of doing business in the underworld, and it seemed that, initially at least, Colin Jefferies-Smith had accepted the fate of his silver Nissan Maxima. It was being held as collateral until he could pay his dues – and penalty interest, no doubt – but that was supposedly the end of the matter: Lance Waite had given his word. It seems Kararaina Wihapi didn't get the memo. The following day, New Year's Day 2018, Wihapi and her cousin Lady Muck were hungry and decided to drive their new set of wheels to Pizza Hut in Greerton. Still pissed off about the loss of the $2000, and perhaps cocky because of the backing of her patched benefactor, Wihapi decided to pay Jefferies-Smith a visit. The two women walked up the stairs to his parents' house on Cameron Road, and called out to him through the open door. Jefferies-Smith was asleep on the couch in the lounge, but jumped up and came outside after being roused by his mother. He said, 'What's going on?' She said, 'You owe [me]. Where's my stuff?' He said, 'But I've already paid.' The two women walked back to the silver Maxima parked in the driveway, with Jefferies-Smith close behind. He reached through the open door, snatched the keys out of the ignition and walked away briskly. Wihapi and Lady Muck looked at each other. They knew they were going to be in trouble with Lance Waite. Not only had they gone behind the Mobster's back to extort more money from Jefferies-Smith (which made Waite look like a liar), they had also lost the ability to drive the car. Hungry and stressed, Lady Muck spent a frantic 10 minutes trying to hotwire the Maxima, fruitlessly, before making the rash decision to take out her frustrations on the stubborn ignition with a crowbar. Now even if they got the keys back from Jefferies-Smith, they couldn't start the car. Defeated, Lady Muck called Stewart Keepa and asked for a ride back to The Trap. When they got there, someone was waiting for them: a very grumpy gangster. Waite growled at the two women for throwing a spanner in the works, as he had already made a deal with Jefferies-Smith about the debt. Waite's word was his bond, and the greedy and foolish actions of Wihapi and Lady Muck made it look like the Mongrel Mobster had gone back on it. He told the women that they owed him now, too. Nevertheless, Waite couldn't let Jefferies-Smith keep the car. The gangster couldn't show weakness; he had to dominate the situation and show everyone who was the boss. So he went around to the Cameron Road address with an associate, and towed the Maxima back to The Trap, then called Jefferies-Smith demanding that the keys be returned. A very unhappy Jefferies-Smith refused. He felt the debt had been cleared with the $1200 cash and four ounces of cannabis given to Waite, so his car should be returned. Jefferies-Smith was getting desperate. Although worth only $800, the silver Nissan Maxima was his most valuable possession, and also the only way to keep his drug business afloat. Any hope of repaying his debt disappeared along with it. He spent most of January 2, negotiating with Waite to get his car back, to no avail. 'Fucking mutts, I want my car back,' he said in a text message to a friend. 'I paid the mutt, still no car, I'm about ready to start chopping the cunts up.' Jefferies-Smith was friends with a man called Casino Williams, a senior Black Power member. The Mongrel Mob and Black Power gangs have been bitter rivals in New Zealand for as long as anyone can remember, with a bloody history of violence and murder across the country. Everyone knows Mongrel Mob and Black Power can't stand each other but curiously, Casino Williams and Lance Waite had their own personal animus. The bad blood dated back to the 1980s when Waite, when he wasn't in prison, was living at his family homestead near Paeroa. The Hauraki Plains was Black Power territory, and Waite was pretty much the only Mobster for miles around. There was always tension whenever he came home, boiling over into confrontations when the two men crossed paths in town, with Waite – a few years older, more hardened than Williams – often getting the better of these exchanges. So it's not hard to imagine that three decades later, when Colin Jefferies-Smith was recounting his woes with Lance Waite, Casino Williams had a glint in his eye when he encouraged him to 'take a stand and shoot the cunt'. Williams even put a gun into his hands: a black, .22 calibre Ruger semi-automatic rifle. Taken with kind permission from the wildly exciting newly published investigation into organised crime, Underworld: The new era of gangs in New Zealand by Jared Savage (HarperCollins, $37), available in bookstores nationwide. It's the third book in his trilogy that traces the evolution of heavily armed, determinedly violent gangs who have capitalised on the methamphetamine trade in New Zealand.
CNET
24-07-2025
- Business
- CNET
CNET Daily Tariff Price Impact Tracker: How 11 Key are Reacting to Inflation
Price hikes resulting from Trump's tariffs could be closer than ever. James Martin/CNET The question of how new tariffs will affect prices is more relevant than ever. President Donald Trump has punted another major deadline down the road and a new Consumer Price Index summary shows that inflation was 2.7% in June, the biggest jump since February. With the reality of tariff-driven inflation arriving in earnest, it's more important than ever to keep tabs on the prices that most impact you. To help with that, I've been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by price increases from tariffs, and the answer I've come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon. To date, I've seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products have gone on sale for brief periods. Notably, other outlets have caught a number of major retailers hiking prices across the board, with CNBC finding some substantial inflation at Walmart specifically. CNET Tariff Tracker Index Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you'll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. Based on the numbers so far, the average has gone up noticeably since the start of the year, but this has been driven mostly be a big shifts for a few products, as most price are still stable. We'll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It's all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET's guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession. Now Playing: Should You Buy Now or Wait? Our Experts Weigh In on Tariffs 09:42 Methodology We're checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled "Now" and showing the current price. For the past months, we've gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple's official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we'll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause. The 11 products we're tracking Mostly what we're tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs -- along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn't produced in the US to any significant degree. The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists. Below, we'll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting. iPhone 16 The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500. Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you'll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you'll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830. Apple's been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn't move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now. Duracell AA batteries A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you'll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we're tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon. Samsung DU7200 TV Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they're an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET's pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump's announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week. Xbox Series X Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft's Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes -- the company cited "market conditions" along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that "certain" games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80. Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US. AirPods Pro 2 The latest iteration of Apple's wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. While Prime Day might be in the rearview mirror at this point, you can grab a pair of these earbuds for $169, a $30 discount from where they've been most of the year. HP 962 CMY printer ink This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 -- where it stayed for most of 2025 -- to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick. This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we're still tracking that item. Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank Anker's accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET's lists of the best portable chargers. Bose TV speaker Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won't let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET's overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025. This product hasn't seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, but while Prime Day might have come and gone, there's still a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now, letting you save a little bit of money for the time being. Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump's tariffs. For now, its price has been largely unchanged in the last few months. You can, however, grab it on Amazon right now at a $20 discount, but we'll have to see how long that actually lasts. Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag) Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity -- I'm certainly drinking too much of it these days -- and because it's uniquely susceptible to Trump's tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth's equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the "Coffee Belt." Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season -- little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years. All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. While this particular bag of beans from Starbucks hasn't seen its price budge for most of the year, in recent days it ticked up by less than a dollar on Amazon, which could be a sign of further increases to come. Other products As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we're still keeping an eye on: Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places -- including Amazon release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X. release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X. Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven't been featured with a graph yet: Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer's largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump's tariff plans were ramping up in April. Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus's Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company's upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
Hindustan Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
5 best tablet deals with verified price drops- Amazon Prime Day 2025 sale
Amazon Prime Day Sale is finally almost here, and the Prime Day Early Deals have already started popping up. Now, if you're looking for tablet deals, we have put together a list of the best ones we have spotted on Amazon ahead of the big sale. Further, we have also taken the time to include price history, so you can decide whether it's a real discount or just marked down for the sake of the sale. Read on for the details. Best tablet in India: Several tablets are currently discounted on Amazon as part of the Early Deals. Loading Suggestions... The OnePlus Pad Go typically retails for ₹19,999. However, the tablet is often available for ₹17,999. It frequently drops to ₹16,999, as it did in May and June. The product is again back at ₹16,999. However, you can sweeten the deal further by applying a ₹1,000 coupon, which was available as of 1PM on July 11. This brings the price down to ₹15,999. Furthermore, you can get a ₹2,000 discount on select bank cards, which brings the price under ₹14,000. This is a good price for the product, as it mostly retails at ₹17,999. The tablet itself is ideal for content consumption; it has a large 2.4K display and supports Dolby Atmos with its quad-speaker setup. However, do not expect to do high-end gaming on this one. For most content consumption and note-taking needs, this should be ideal. OnePlus Pad Go price history (Source: Keepa) Period/Offer Price (Rs) Typical Retail Price 19,999 Frequent Sale Price 17,999 Price in May & June 2025 16,999 Current Prime Day Price (11th July) 16,999 With ₹ 1,000 Coupon 15,999 With Coupon & Bank Offer Around 14,000 Loading Suggestions... This is another deal we came across where the price is certainly lower than before. As part of an early Prime Day deal, the iPad Air M3 is available for ₹51,900. Regarding its price history, until mid-June, the tablet retailed at ₹59,900. It dropped to ₹55,999 by the end of June but was back up to ₹58,490. Therefore, the current price of ₹51,900 is certainly a good deal. You can bring this down by a further ₹3,500 by combining bank offers. As for the tablet itself, you get the powerful M3 chipset, and this is the latest iPad Air version. You will be able to perform intensive tasks like video editing in apps such as Final Cut and graphic design in apps like Procreate. Of course, it will also be an excellent media consumption device thanks to its punchy display and powerful speakers. However, you will miss out on 120Hz refresh rate support that you get with the higher-end iPad Pro OLED models. iPad Air with M3 chip price history (Source: Keepa) Period/Offer Price (Rs) Retail Price (until mid-June 2025) 59,900 Price (late June 2025) 55,999 - 58,490 Current Prime Day Deal (11th July) 51,900 With Bank Offer ( ₹ 3,500 off) 48,449 Samsung Tab S9 FE The Galaxy Tab S9 FE comes with an S Pen in the box, which makes it good value for money, especially for note-takers and students. The tablet is also available for a good price right now at ₹28,999. You can get up to ₹5750 discount on SBI bank credit cards, which brings the net effective price down further. This is a big discount, as towards the end of June, the tablet was available for ₹34,999. It then dropped to ₹29,999 before going back up to ₹34,999, just before its current price of ₹28,999 as part of the Amazon Prime Day sale. The tablet also packs several AI features, including Circle to Search, just like Samsung's flagship phones. It is IP68 rated, so you do not have to worry about children spilling water on it. All in all, this could be a good media consumption device with some flagship features. Optional accessories are also available, like the book cover keyboard, which you can use to type comfortably and have an almost laptop-like experience. Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE price history (Source: Keepa) Period/Offer Price (Rs) Typical Price (late June 2025) 34,999 Brief Price Drop (late June 2025) 29,999 Current Prime Day Deal (11th July) 28,999 Net Effective Price with SBI Bank Offer Around 23,300 Loading Suggestions... You may remember Apple launched an iPad Pro with nano-texture glass that eliminates reflections, making it ideal for use in bright work environments. What if we told you that you could get something similar with the Xiaomi Pad 7? The tablet itself packs a lot of power with a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3. It has a 3.2K display and comes with 12 GB of RAM, so it should be ideal for mid-range gaming, content consumption, and even some light video editing. It also runs Xiaomi's latest HyperOS. The best part is that the tablet is indeed available for a low price compared to what it was going for a month ago. Looking at the price history, for most of May, it retailed at ₹32,999. It dropped to ₹31,999 by the end of May, and then at the start of June, it was ₹30,999. The tablet is now back at ₹30,999, but you can get up to ₹3,750 discount on select bank credit cards. So, if you want a tablet that stays legibly bright in outdoor conditions and you want to avoid reflections, this could be a great option. Xiaomi Pad 7 price history (Source: Keepa) Period/Offer Price (Rs) Price (most of May 2025) 32,999 Price (late May 2025) 31,999 Price (early June 2025) 30,999 Current Prime Day Price (11th July) 30,999 Net Effective Price with Bank Offer Around 27,300 Loading Suggestions... The Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ is for those who want a tablet from a reliable brand, and Samsung certainly is, thanks to its after-sales support. This makes it ideal for first-time tablet buyers or parents looking for a tablet for their children. Coming to the price, the tablet retailed for ₹20,999 for most of June, dropped to ₹18,999 by the end of the month, and was back up to ₹20,999 in the first week of July. As part of an early Prime Day deal, the tablet is now retailing for ₹16,999, which is much lower than its previous retail price. You can couple this with up to a ₹4,500 extra discount and also apply bank discounts, bringing the price down even further. Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ price history (Source: Keepa) Period/Offer Price (Rs) Price (most of June 2025) 20,999 Price (late June 2025) 18,999 Price (early July 2025) 20,999 Current Prime Day Deal (11th July) 16,999 Price with Bank Discounts Lower than 13,000 MOBILE FINDER: iPhone 16 LATEST Price
Business Insider
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Our shopping editors share 5 insider tips for how to get the best deals on Prime Day
I've been covering Prime Day and other big deal days for almost 10 years, as has the majority of the Business Insider Reviews team, so we have a few tricks up our sleeves when it comes to spotting a good deal. But the truth is that when it comes to deal shopping, buying a bunch of stuff at a discount is not the same as saving money. I asked our deals editors for their best advice and shopping hacks for making the most of Prime Day, and they have some great tips about spending now to save later. Before you jump in, if you're just starting your deal browsing journey, see our roundup of the best Prime Day deals. Otherwise, read on for our advice on getting the best deals. 1. Start by going through your order history to see if anything you purchase regularly is on sale. Toilet paper, cat litter, shampoo, cleaning products — think about your recurring purchases and check to see if they're on sale. Buying an extra pack of something you'll need in the future at a solid discount is a good way to save money in the long run. If you don't usually shop for those items on Amazon and your order history isn't going to help you much, try browsing Amazon's Prime Day deals on household essentials and see if anything you need or regularly buy is on sale. 2. Don't be afraid to pause your Subscribe and Save purchases if the discount on Prime Day is cheaper. Are those vitamins you subscribe to every month on super sale during Prime Day? Pick up a couple bottles now and pause your subscription for a short while. 3. Use a price-checker like CamelCamelCamel or Keepa to see an item's price history. CamelCamelCamel is an easy way to see an item's price history, specifically on Amazon. Just drop the link to the product you're looking at, and you can see long-term pricing data to understand if you're getting a good deal. Keepa is a similar plugin tool that will show price history right on an Amazon product page. 4. Add things to your wish list or cart and track the prices there. Adding items to your wishlist or shopping cart is a great way to keep track of everything you're eyeing, but it can also help you track prices. Amazon tells you how the current price compares to when the item was added to your wishlist or cart, so you'll know what's on sale and if it's a real deal. Plus, if your wishlist is set to public, you can "import wishlist" into CamelCamelCamel and also set alerts for when products dip below a certain price. 5. Trade in old Amazon devices and receive an immediate discount to use on top of Prime Day prices. If you have old Amazon devices lying around and want to upgrade to a newer version, you can trade in your old device and get an immediate discount, which can be applied to Prime Day deals for extra savings. Most trade-ins will get you 20% off your purchase immediately, with the refund hitting your account once your old device is received. Quick links to make Amazon Prime Day shopping easier: See BI's Prime Day vacuum deal picks See BI's Prime Day baby deal picks See BI's Prime Day luggage deal picks See Amazon's everyday essentials deals for Prime Day See Amazon's home and kitchen deals for Prime Day See Amazon's beauty deals for Prime Day Shopping for more discounts today? Check out our roundup of all of the best Prime Day deals or browse Amazon's website for the full selection.
CNET
02-07-2025
- Business
- CNET
Are Tariffs Hiking Prices Yet? What I've Seen Watching 11 Key Products for Changes
Price hikes resulting from Trump's tariffs could be closer than ever. James Martin/CNET I've keeping daily tabs on several popular products over the last few months, watching to see if Donald Trump's sweeping tariff plans have hit their prices yet. Given that the president recently said 90-day pause on his steepest tariffs -- set to end in just a week's time on July 9 -- won't be extended, price hikes are now looking as likely as they ever have. For the most part, prices for these 11 items have remained steady in the last few weeks, aside from a notable increase for the Xbox Series X and a slight uptick for a budget-friendly 4K TV. A few have also gone on sale for brief periods, but as of now, they've all mostly reverted back to normal -- though you should expect the sale prices to return as Prime Day approaches in July, a good time overall to make purchases that might get more expensive later. With all that said, the broader impact of these import taxes is still on the horizon, especially as Trump now claims that tariff rates against China are going back up to 55% soon. The Trump administration has also been working to undo a trade court ruling, which found that Trump has no authority to set tariffs as he has been -- a move now being argued before an appeals court. We'll see how that ultimately plays out, but for now, the possibility that the president's tariff policies will lead to price hikes remains likely. CNET Tariff Tracker Index Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you'll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. We'll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It's all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET's guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession. Now Playing: Should You Buy Now or Wait? Our Experts Weigh In on Tariffs 09:42 Methodology We're checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled "Now" and showing the current price. For the past months, we've gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month. In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple's official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we'll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause. The 11 products we're tracking Mostly what we're tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs -- along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn't produced in the US to any significant degree. The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists. Below, we'll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting. iPhone 16 The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500. Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you'll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you'll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830. Apple's been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn't move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now. Apple's flagship device is still the top-selling smartphone globally, as of Q1 of this year, although new research from the firm Counterpoint suggests that tariff uncertainty will cause the brand's growth to stall a bit throughout the rest of 2025. Duracell AA batteries A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you'll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we're tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon. Samsung DU7200 TV Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they're an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET's pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance. This model was most recently listed on Amazon at $419.55, up from the $400 price tag it's hovered around for most of the year. Xbox Series X Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft's Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes -- the company cited "market conditions" along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that "certain" games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80. Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US. AirPods Pro 2 The latest iteration of Apple's wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. For most of the year, they've hovered around $199, which is a notable savings on its list price of $249. HP 962 CMY printer ink This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 -- where it stayed for most of 2025 -- to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick. This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we're still tracking that item. Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank Anker's accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET's lists of the best portable chargers. Bose TV speaker Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose. Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won't let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET's overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025. Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump's tariffs. Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag) Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity -- I'm certainly drinking too much of it these days -- and because it's uniquely susceptible to Trump's tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth's equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the "Coffee Belt." Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season -- little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years. All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. Other products As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we're still keeping an eye on: Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places -- including Amazon release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X. release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X. Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven't been featured with a graph yet: Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer's largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump's tariff plans were ramping up in April. Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus's Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company's upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
