I just ordered 12 Panasonic NCR18650PF cells for $3.25ea which i consider pretty good. When I checked out though, Gearbest wants $4.90 for shipping when it used to be free.
’Still a decent price for a mid-amp cell but I assume this is due to retaliation and new shipping tariffs…
Domestic shipping prices for batteries have gone way up too. There’s a thread about Liion wholesale that discusses some of this (domestic anyways).
It’s about restrictions on shipping hazardous materials and not retaliation/tariffs as you imply. So far, none of the other shipping prices have gone up, only bare batteries.
Yep.
It’s mostly because of the errors that the airline industry does in relation to li-ion battery packs.
In the 1st battery incident in the 747, it was discovered many years later that the battery pack system had no per-cell fusing, no fuses in the system, the battery pack stayed fully charged all the time, leading to pack degradation, and finally, the most important flaw in their system.
They didn’t plan anything in regards to cell venting/flaming, like a sand trap that would activate if the pack’s temperature was out of control, etc.
Then there is the whole hoverboard situation that happened back in 2014 which resulted in fires because of no BMS, mismatched cells, or even worse in some cases(I’ve personally found one in a pack that was thrown out very recently), that most cells were fully charged, but some were in reverse polarity.
I’d even be inclined to say that individually sold lithium ion cells are safer than battery packs, since they are separated, no risks of short circuit, and no failing electronics killing packs, along with the fact some lithium-ion sellers ship their cells like they were literal bombs.
Like the Sunway store. They put plastic circles on the tetminals, wrapped the cells in a clear wrap, inside of a small box with the cells separated, with foam, inside of another box filled with foam.
TLDR: Because of the lack of care and quality control from companies shipping lithium ion products, consumers have to freaking suffer, which are probably safer.
I just had 4 x BASEN 26650 4500mAh del yesterday.
Large (for their volume) thick caardboard box.
batt’s roll wrapped in pairs with white foam sheeting.
Each battery in own box. Shrink wrapped in clear plastic. with a thick moulded (shrink wrapped) plastic cover again covering head and base.
Each completely isolated from each other.
They supposed to be 30a out. with max pulse of 60a.
We’ll see.
It’s the best sealing I’ve had so far.
All My Pana’s and SAMSUNG Q30’s have come in clear plastic battery boxes
2 or 4 x.And a few earlier (b4 I realised) Chinese units just came in those grey sealed plastic packs.
I did get 2 x 26650’s last yr. came in a plastic torch???.
Hmm. Took me a minit to realise.
Dump plastic. use Batt’s. Drrrrr.
I can only sigh…
I need to order batteries with flashlights as the container. Otherwise, bare batteries are not allowed to ship to my country.
I’ve been paying around that amount of shipping cost last year, when a handful of stores (AliExpress only — Banggood, Gearbest, FastTech do not ship to my country at all) still shipped batteries. But this year, almost no online store ships bare batteries to my country anymore (need to purchase flashlight with the battery)… So the battery’s shipping cost is the cost of the “flashlight”.
Like when I have to order the BLF A6 + INR18650-30Q from Banggood, to get hold of the 30Q battery, then I have to sell off the BLF A6.
Otherwise, there is no other way for me to get the 30Q battery…
GB charging shipping on batteries isn’t new, not by a long-shot. It’s one of the reasons I just end up ordering cells from a domestic (US) source, like LiIonWholesale
WOuld be happy to pay GB to ship legit batteries. Unfortunately only BG ship to Australia and they don’t have as a good a range.
What will happen (if it already hasn’t) is:
- Even more faulty, fake and improperly built cells will continue to flood the developed world’s markets to make up for the added cost of shipping them.
- Even more flashlight manufacturers (here on this forum and elsewhere) will continue to ignore questions regarding whether common sense protected cells fit properly or not in favor of the cheapest cell fitment possible (period) to retain profit versus safety levels.
We asked for it by accepting the above when we knew better in terms of a whole host of basic standards not to mention allowing any country unearned legislative/monetary advantages involving the transportation of goods in to our countries for next to nothing.
Pay a lot for crap and fakes will now be the new normal as we most likely deserve.
It’s not shipping costs though that really matter.
It’s just availability!
If I want to order a cell online on Aliexpress for example, it’ll cost me over 40$US for 20$US worth of cells.