Massive post on where to get lithium-ion batteries everywhere in the world! Look at Post 2-5 for info, And Canada Post 123

mud_muncher, first of all let me say the “FOR whatever” thing is pretty common and it may have something to do with the present chinese struggling with occidental languages. Have you paid attention to AliExpress' machine translation of customer reviews? It's so awful :facepalm: I often disable translation and use Google's translator.

On the other hand, li-ion cells are an industrial product not meant for end consumers. This is a very important fact. The big OEMs already got involved in sending written warnings to some li-ion cell retailers to notify them they were oficially not allowed to sell their industrial batteries to consumers. Hope you can now better understand, mud_muncher.

:-)

My understanding of the “for Sanyo” etc wording (and please correct me if this is wrong) is that the manufacturers supply these cells to the big brands, and only the big brands are really allowed to sell them under their own name. There is, however, nothing to stop the manufacturers selling the same product direct to wholesalers though, and advertising it for what it is, basically “as made FOR Sanyo” etc.

SO even if the cell is 100% legit, as supplied to a big brand, it will not traditionally be sold by retailers or wholesalers without the “for” unless it was supplied to them by the big brand themselves, with an unavoidable bump up in price.

Is this understanding correct?

I ordered 6 NCR18650GAs from them and got them quickly.

There is nothing left in their store.

Couldn’t BG and others circumvent the shipping restrictions by selling cells inside the cheapest throwaway DIY power bank they can find?

@erlebo, they are temporarily closing down due to the Chinese New Year.

I’ve sent them some messages about this, and other info you might be interested in.

Please, do tell.

Let’s wait until I can actually touch a keyboard though.

Spoiler: Someone at Aliya knows about Liitokala a bit more than we do :slight_smile:

No surprises here, they're “beside them”. What's the point in keeping that information in secrecy? I'll gamble a bit: LiitoKala is making big cash on fake cells due to people's ignorance, with at least their battery division being run by a bunch of crooks (see contact ZhangNi, which some time in the past used a photograph of Elsa Pataky to identify herself in their store; maybe her true name is Boris).

On top of this, there's at least another LiitoKala website: http://www.liito-kala.com/

O:)

Two new good providers found.

VbattyBigpower Store

I bought 12pcs (6 lots) NCR18650BD
They are legit cells “Made in Japan”.

.

Vbatty524 Store
3pcs (1 lot) NCR20700B legit from Chinese factory.

Yeah, so it does ship everywhere except Canada for some reason.

Now for the story with Aliya’s Battery Store:

Hello Aliya’s Battery Store.

As you know, I have ordered Samsung 30Qs and Sanyo NCR18650GAs from your store.

What is happening to your store and why are there no more choices available to customers?

I hope you are not closing down.

Thank you, and have a good day.

Hi Friend
Thanks for your interesting
We will going to hometown for our traditional New year holiday . And for this reason, we can’t ship the orders during Aliexpress allowed time; so ,we will remove off shelf all items for 3-4 days .
Please place the order about 3-4 days after this national event.
Thanks.

Thank you.

I was just worried you were closing the store completely because of a lack of sales or something else.

And do not worry. I never order anything during the Chinese New Year.

And, no I did not order anything.

I ordered, and received, the 18650s a few weeks ago, and they work really well. Thanks again for the response, and happy New Year.

Two questions: What is your shipping method?

  • Do you know about the Liitokala stores selling fake Samsung/LG/Murata/Panasonic batteries at very low prices? If so, I would like it, as I would like for them to stop, and support your store.*

Thanks for your kind understanding. It is appreciated from your part.

You can still place order about 3-4 days later. Do not worry. Your order will have priority to send when we come back from the New Year holiday.

For Americans and Canadians, we ship directly to national post warehouse in United States with customs done for rechargeable lithium batteries, as before, there were problems with customs.
It was expensive, but it allowed to lower process cost, return custom cost, and faster shipping speed. You received after 3 weeks due to 11/11. Usually, you receive after 2 weeks.

For second answer, I know about Liitokala fake batteries. It is very deceiving on their part, and not honorable for Chinese people. Should be punished for lack of safety and honor.
They actually started in 2017, after we were sent messages that our prices were higher compared to Liitokala. I investigated, as I knew people from official Liitokala I not name.
I test the Panasonic 3400mAh and Samsung 3000mAh batteries, and using AC resistance tester, they were very poor compare to cell, and physical comparaison was wrong.
Also, Panasonic 3400mAh leaked after few months. Never happened before. That was bad. I asked people from Liitokala. They did not respond.
I managed to get more information, and discovered they took high defect low grade Samsung batteries. Bad was Panasonic 3400mAh: it was coming from a Chinese factory using high capacity unstable elements known from making dangerous board batteries. They used Chinese supplier for Samsung 3000mAh too. I tried to get Aliexpress people to remove their store since, but they refuse. I am still not happy with this.

Thank you for the questions. Sorry if my English is not good. I am trying to get better every day.

So, this is bad, and Liitokala has been faking cells since 2017. This is… actually worse than I even expected.

I removed some parts from the text since it did contain some sensitive information Aliya Li asked me to remove if I actually posted it. She also told me she will not be answering more of these types of questions, even via email, since she’s already a small whistleblower.

I ordered four 30Qs delivered to Canada from BG today. I haven’t tried other cells.

That’s an interesting exception to their shipping ban - let us know how that turns out!
(I wonder if it’s an oversight on their part…)

If it is free shipping, then yes, it is an oversight.

I’m weary about ordering cells at banggood.com The first result is MECO 4 x 4000Mah 18650s for $9.99 with a 4.84/5 rating by 635 users. The price and mah reading have to be too good to be true.

Here’s a review: “Data was provided by professional liars (not professional tools). Weighing just 20 grams (see the reviews), their real (discharge) capacity cannot reach 2000 mAh, as the victims of this scam report everywhere.

Who are we to trust on this site?

BG sells some impossible cells, so how can we trust them with the rest? I don’t.

I have faith in the BLFers that say BG sells real 30Qs.

Please somebody tell me that BG sells real 30Qs.

Banggood sells real 30Qs.

There are many things better than you may believe. Finding stuff which doesn't makes justice to that does not make them impossible.

The problem here is that MECO is a swindler brand. That's about it. Don't buy it and spread the word if you feel like that.

Cheers

General rule of thumb is to buy name brand cells and if forum members here say they are legit, then that is very much true. Issue here is BG sells fraudulent cells along with real cells, where as sellers like liionwholesale do not.

Banggood sells abroad worldwide, product judgment free. Judgment free like the subconscious mind. If you don't like something from their catalog just don't buy it. There's people who buys those “bad” products because they know no better, and they hold responsible from the way they believe and the lessons which to them that entails. So, of course, there is reason.