Mail order batteries (USA)?

[forrestc]

I try to keep a fairly decent stock of various spare batteries that get used here at least on occasion "in stock".  Typically I try to keep several coin cells, ( CR2032, CR2024, LR44 as examples) and also a few more esoteric batteries such as the A123, and the one I'm buying today, A21/23.

Retail is expensive, and not that convenient for me.  Also, because the nearest town is not a big city, some of the rarer types are either harder to find, or don't turn over fast enough so I'm often buying a older battery for stock purposes, so I've moved to trying to get them via mail.  I've tried buying these on Amazon, but it's really hit or miss as far as the quality of what shows up - in a lot of ways it's like buying memory cards - there are a lot of sellers out there pushing products which are not fit to be sold.  Counterfeit.  Old Stock, Used (yes, used batteries).

So the question is:  Has anyone found an inexpensive but consistently good mail-order vendor of batteries?

[denverpilot]

Honestly no. I went looking for A123 recently and was completely annoyed by every vendor outlet that I could find in the "traditional" online places,  all showing reviews that said people had received repackaged or dead batteries. Even name brands. Or counterfeits, as you mentioned -- although that was lower than just receiving repackaged suspicious or even dead batteries and having to return them.

Amazon was the worst due to their system lumping in credible vendors of a product with disreputable ones, van ones that were all "fulfilled by Amazon".

They need to get control of that.

[edavid]

http://batteryjunction.com has most types.

You can also get name brand cells from electronics distributors such as Arrow, Digikey, and Newark.  http://findchips.com is helpful for searching.

For generic coin cells and A23s, I have not really had a problem with eBay (with careful seller selection).

[retiredcaps]

I try to keep a fairly decent stock of various spare batteries that get used here at least on occasion "in stock".  Typically I try to keep several coin cells, ( CR2032, CR2024, LR44 as examples) and also a few more esoteric batteries such as the A123, and the one I'm buying today, A21/23.

For the above batteries, I goto ebay, sort by lowest price/shipping, and usually order them in packages of 10 for under $2 USD + free shipping.

So far, all of them, regardless of seller/brand, all measure above their nominal voltage with a multimeter (with no load).

Whether they have the same run time as the name brands like Panasonic, I have no idea.  Panasonics would cost $5 each at the retail store.

[rrinker]

batterymart.com has a good selection of all sorts of batteries. I've only used them for replacement SLA batteries for UPS units, since they are a fraction of the price of what APC wants for a new battery pack. Also they are within the 2 day circle for UPS ground delivery for me so I can get batteries very quickly without paying for expensive express shipping.

[eugenenine]

I haven't ordered coin cells from here but my Imedion's , Eneloops, and MAHA chargers have all been fine

http://www.thomasdistributing.com/Button-Coin-Specialty_c_1187.html