Where to buy a few CR123A primaries?

Hey all

I'm thinking of getting a few CR123A for emergency usage. At CPF they tend to recommend the made in US/Japan/EU and to be fair from what I've read the made in US are available for a decent price from local retailers and websites like battery junction particularly if you want many. But these are for emergency usage (not so much volcanoes, more I didn't have time to charge my batteries) and I don't want 20 let alone 100 since I doubt I'd use that many. I'm probably looking at 4 or 8 at most. So the shipping costs for anything from the US for such small quantities kills it. I haven't looked that well locally in New Zealand but I'm probably looking to pay US$15 inc shipping for 4 for allegedly made in Japan Sanyo as the cheapest.

So if I don't want to spend so much I'll probably have to get from HK i.e. Chinese made CR123A. From a brief search the WF CR123A are universally considered avoid and the Panasonic CR123 on KD are almost definitely "Matsushita Elestric" i.e. fakes so could be completely crap. There are a few other funny brands I've came across but it seems the Trustfire CR123A are probably okay. From what I've read, they don't tend to last long so obviously periodic testing and replacement with 1 year or 2 would probably be wise, obviously taking care to check they're still well matched since I'll be using 2.

Anyone else aware of any other option for cheap CR123s or have other suggestions?

Cheers

eBay for someone local selling them off tends to be what I do. Got ten genuine Duracells for about US$14 including postage.

I have a dozen WFs as well but they aren't even out of the packaging yet.

The white Panasonics are fakes and rubbish "Matsushita Elestric" ones. Of the ten I bought several years ago, only four show any detectable voltage now and one of them reports a negative voltage - these are all completely unused cells.

Probably worth checking ebay.com.au or do they rip you off for postage to NZ?

Avoid the white WF cells. They are a waste of money since they suck in both the capacity and shelf life department.

Both solarforce and 4sevens cells can be had for around $20/10 cells and so far they have not failed me like the WF cells have.

Thanks for the tip I wouldn't mind a few as backups

Thanks I saw the Solarforce a few days ago but forgot about them until recently. I see 4sevens although from the US also ship for free. Of course both of these are made in China but the 4sevens seem to be resonably good http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=235213 No real info on how well they last when stored though which seems to be one of the common complaints with made in China cells. Haven't see any analysis of the Solarforce ones (or Trustfire for the matter). 10 is a bit more then I want but both are fairly good prices, Trustfire still cheaper of course even for only 2.

Yeah the WF are definitely ones to avoid. In DX people seem to be getting many DOA. Someone said in a review they're poorly designed so can't be transported by air or put in low pressure situations.

Another possible source is disassembling 2CR5 and CR-P2/CR223 that you found at clearance http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=67078 You get 2 although you may want to be careful using them in a 2 cell light (at least test them first) in case you shorted them during disassembly so they're imbalanced.

BTW I did an analysis and at least for shipping to NZ and I was right, for lighthound, batteryjunction and cfrlights the shipping kills the price at least for any order with 10 or less. Couldn't test batterystation since they don't seem to have a shipping estimator.

You can get Solarforce batts postage free on ebay a cpl for $5 or so they don't seem to have a bad rep.

A very good place to get a few batteries is shiningbeam.com He only has rayovacs so there isn't any selection but the rayovacs are good batteries. $1.59 per cell. It's not the best price you can get, but the shipping cost is very good. The best thing from my point of view is that he ships to canada at a flat rate of 2.95 using usps. I always avoid UPS and fedex. Carrier companies all have brokerage fees for bringing across the border and they always collect tax. No brokerage fees from usps. They can collect tax but it's never happend to me.

Flat rate shiping of 2.75 for domestic(US) 2.95 to Canada and 5.95 to all the other countries that he ships to.

There are better deals out there if you want 50-100 from places like batterystation and batteryjunction if you're american, but for small orders of 10-20, i really like shiningbeam. At the bottom of his q&a page you'll see that he ships to New Zealand. The batteries can be found under parts and accessories.