I see Neal has already offered to sell you some cells. He can get you some genuine cells. I think he’s in China. Banggood is an online retail seller based in China. AFAIK, they are not like AliExpress, but are just one shop. But somebody has already said they might be selling some fakes. I don’t know about that. I think I’ve only ever gotten genuine cells from them. But I don’t pull wrappers off of mine. I also don’t buy button top cells from Chinese shops, since those are almost always put on by third parties. Some of the smaller Chinese cell manufacturers might do their own. But either way, the quality could be questionable.
For the USA sellers, any of the three I mentioned above will sell you genuine cells. Each one of them carries a slightly different selection, but they all carry the most popular cells. I usually compare the prices and pick the one that gets me the cell I want at the best price. The last several months, it has consistently been LIION Wholesale.
in the US I strongly suggest you buy from Illumn.com, mtnelctronics.com, imrbatterystore.com or liIonwholesale.com. Illumn is my personal favorite with prompt shipping and good prices.
I have had decent experiences with Gearbest and just barely tolerable with Banggood but if you need to return something you are completely out of luck.
I'll gladly spend a little extra to support American small businesses.
As I read more & more about the dishonest & underhanded dealings with shady vendors in China, I'm becoming less & less surprised that a culture that supposedly values personal honor and "face" produces so many dishonorable vendors in the flashlight / Li-Ion cell marketplace. There are of course exceptions (Neal comes to mind specifically), but the risks & worries that accompany dealing with vendors having murky backgrounds, such as multiple fake "Liitokala" cell vendors, just aren't worth it to me.
I used Moochs’ guides to verify the Samsung 25Rs I got from Vapah Inc on eBay. Turns out 25Rs have very unique identifiers that are specific to genuine cells that fakes (at least as of May 2019) don’t have. Even very good fakes. Like stamps under the positive terminal on the vent. 6 cells for like $26 shipped. The 30Qs were like $45 shipped for 8. I was looking at 18650GAs and they were $35 for 6. I couldn’t find guaranteed genuine cells cheaper stateside or even in China. Maybe Neil can get them cheaper!
Here’s my experience with buying from across the pond. In word, caveat emptor, buyer beware. You need to realize you are most likely getting what you pay for. I’ve got good, as-advertised stuff from Aliexpress and eBay, but also got the wrong items or something not as described from. Pay attention to the seller rating and feedback. Also, expect to get some bad eggs if you buy a lot from China and forget about returns. All the Chinese sellers always refund me and the ones who’ve sent me the wrong or defective items have even sent me new ones that mysteriously disappear in transit at which point you wait for a month and then ask for a refund. The moral of the story is…it might be worth while to buy local and pay a few bucks more.
I’ve decided that it’s just not worth my time or concern to buy batteries from overseas. Although I’ve brought probably 25 batteries from Banggood, Gearbest, and Fasttech in the past few years and all appear to be genuine (and how can anyone be 100% sure with some of the better fakes?), my last 8 have been from Illum and Liion. After considering that I have many thousands of bullets and primers sitting in my basement that will probably never be used (anyone in the SF Bay Area in the market for lead bullets/primers ), I concluded that a few extra dollars spent on USA based suppliers is well worth the money.
Well, if this ’first line, second character should be zero (to be considered as genuine), then this 30Q I got from BG (albeit years ago when lilos are freely shipped world-wide) is a sample of my other several genuine 30Qs I got from them.
I can confirm purchasing Samsung 30Q 18650’s from Banggood, @ June 2019 that are fakes. They’re not too happy refunding either so i’ve filed a dispute via Paypal.
Buy only from reputable dealers would be my advice.
A while back I wanted the cheapest but still new cells I could find, ’cause when selling a light, no one wants to pay an additional 5-10bux for one cell. So I got some “genuine LiitoKala” (pffft) cells trussed up like panny-Bs for like 3bux a pop. Flattops.
They were probably rewrapped commodity cells like LiShens, but they were all pretty much to-spec as far as capacity, they’d be going into low-stress lights, so would be fine. I was and am perfectly okay with that, as I knew what I was getting, and the price “fit”.
Now… if you want real 30Qs, or VTC5s/-5As/-6es, or HG2s, NOW we got a problem if they’re fake, as that’s outright fraud, like selling a Bolex watch for the price of a Rolex.
The problem is proving that you got fake name-brand cells, as a 3-leaf clover vs 4-leaf clover on the button, crappy welds vs good welds, leading-‘0’ stenciled on there or not… neither the seller, nor AX/BG/whoever, nor PayPal, nor credit-card company, would want to hear it. No one there is going to do research to see if it’s true, or if you’re just pulling it out your ass to try to make a fake claim and get free batteries. “You got battery, it hold voltage, it good!” Claim denied.
So, caveat emptor, cave canem, all that Latin wisdom.
), I concluded that a few extra dollars spent on USA based suppliers is well worth the money.
