Had to show off my latest Goodwill haul: 35 18650s for $25.
$5 a pack. Only had three bad cells outta the bunch. The green Sonys came charged to 2.92-3.5 volts. Panasonics were 2.60-2.75! Just wish they were all 3400 mah cells :-). Green Sonys seemed brand new and were 2600 mah. Gray cells and panasonics were 2400. Rest were 2200. Testing them now but all seem to work fine. (Had a couple Panasonics that were 1.72 volts, so I am playing with them — CAREFULLY — to see whether they hold a charge (they do) and for how long.)
When removing the batteries, even being super careful, some get tiny little nicks through the wrapper, but still plenty big enough to carry a dangerous short circuit so I always add a layer of clear shrink tube over the factory stuff. Sometimes the original cover gets slashed, so I recover completely using the clear shrink tube, hence the bare metal cells.
Strangely, the LG 2200 (tan); Samsung gray 2400 and Samsung 2200 (sky blue) all came from the EXACT same pack for the exact same HP laptop model. Panasonics came from a Dell pack. The packs almost always say “country of origin” for the cells, so it’s pretty easy to figure out what you’ll get. I have some salvaged Panasonic 2000 mah 18650s that are like 10 years old from 2003 and they work better than new samsung 2600s … Or seem to. Gotta get a hobby charger to check the real capacities
Other picture shows my shotgun shell boxes (12 gauge for 18650 and 20 gauge for 14500). Handy way to store and sort batts if you have a lot of ’em.
I gotta stay outta Goodwill or I will have enough batteries to supply the Russian army. So hard for me to pass up a bargain even when I don’t really need it.
