LiIonWholesale shipping prices went through the roof!

RobertB · 2018-06-15T20:28:42.000Z

CNCman:

I just recieved my order from Iiion Wholesale today. Placed order last Sunday 06-10-2018 and arrived 06-15-2018. The price was $20.36 for 4x BUTTON Top Samsung INR18650-30Q 15A 3000mAh 18650 Battery - Genuine - Wholesale Discount with $3.77 shipping for USPS First Class Mail.

Guess I just ordered ahead of the price change.

5 days First Class Parcel. It must have traveled ground and not air, according to the “new rules”.

Jon-LiionWholesale · 2018-06-15T20:31:52.000Z

RobertB:

Edit#2. I just did a shipping calculation from Liionwholesale to my address. 16oz box which is about the weight of 8 18650’s plus packing materials. First Class Parcel postage is $4.94 (not including packing materials), and Parcel Select Ground is $7.10 (not including materials). I find that amazing that a package the same weight and size, of any product can fly and arrive in two days cheaper, than being piled into a truck arriving in 5 to 8 days. Still not convinced all First Class Parcel mail travels by plane. A truck can easily be driven from PA to MI in 8 or 9 hours. Would be interesting to put a GPS tracker in a package and see it travel.

Yep, it’s silly but it is what it is. And yes I’m sure in rare cases they don’t go to a plane, but USPS still treats it as an air method so it doesn’t matter from our perspective, it’s still not allowed.

Jon-LiionWholesale · 2018-06-15T20:35:26.000Z

CNCman:

I just recieved my order from Iiion Wholesale today. Placed order last Sunday 06-10-2018 and arrived 06-15-2018. The price was $20.36 for 4x BUTTON Top Samsung INR18650-30Q 15A 3000mAh 18650 Battery - Genuine - Wholesale Discount with $3.77 shipping for USPS First Class Mail.

Guess I just ordered ahead of the price change.

Yep, you ordered just ahead of it. We’ve been phasing in the pricing on the website. So you got the first class price. Unfortunately can’t do that anymore.

wolfdog1226 · 2018-06-15T20:35:35.000Z

These NEW shipping regulations suck and it is very unfortunate.

I feel even more grateful now that I ONLY live 1.5 miles away from Liionwholsale and do not have to worry about shipping.

I have only bought elsewhere a few times over the last 3 years. Elsewhere is now history!

CNCman · 2018-06-15T22:03:04.000Z

This may be somewhat off topic but the 30Q batteries I recieved from LIION Wholesale, internal resistance checks 15, 85, 115, 95 after deducting 30mohm for the charger. The weight was also a little light at 46.1 to 46.3 gr. They are being tested now but I will not see the results until tomorrow. Any suggestions ??

atbglenn · 2018-06-15T21:45:50.000Z

I got 4 30Q’s from Jon on June 5th. They have 3 vents. I’m sure the ones I got are authentic.

RobertB · 2018-06-15T22:16:57.000Z

CNCman:

This may be somewhat off topic but the 30Q batteries I recieved from LIION Wholesale, internal resistance checks 15, 85, 115, 95 after deducting 30mohm for the charger. The weight was also a little light at 46.1 to 46.3 gr. They are being tested now but I will not see the results until tomorrow. Any suggestions ??

You got button top 30Q’s that have a clear wrapper over the cell right? Mine weight exactly the same as yours.

atbglenn · 2018-06-15T22:07:47.000Z

RobertB:

CNCman:

This may be somewhat off topic but the 30Q batteries I recieved from LIION Wholesale do NOT appear to be Authentic. They only have 2 vents and the wrapping looks suspicious as well, with some writing visible underneath that you can almost read. Also the internal resistance checks 15, 85, 115, 95 after deducting 30mohm for the charger. The weight was also light at 46.1 to 46.3 gr. They are being tested now but I will not see the results until tomorrow. Any suggestions ??

If these check bad I will send them back and NEVER buy batteries from anyone but https://www.imrbatteries.com/
This really sucks because I was going to use these with the good ones from IMR on an 8 cell configuration but the internal resistance is too great. So much for trying to save a few dollars, NOT worth that.

Jon doesn’t sell fake batteries. You got button top 30Q’s that have a clear wrapper over the cell right?

Mine are the flat tops with 3 vents. I wasn’t thinking he might have had the button tops.

CNCman · 2018-06-15T22:14:40.000Z

“RobertB” and ” atbglenn ” yes you are right, Just edited my earlier comment after reading the full description on the website. They add the button top and put on a clear wrapper on a flat top, so they are probably fine. The number of vents on these are irrelevant since they are stated as modified flat tops with their own button tops added. Still not sure about the internal resistance. You may want to edit your post as well, since I screwed up by not reading the description. Sorry about that, My Bad….

Jon-LiionWholesale · 2018-06-15T22:27:54.000Z

CNCman:

This may be somewhat off topic but the 30Q batteries I recieved from LIION Wholesale do NOT appear to be Authentic. They only have 2 vents and the wrapping looks suspicious as well, with some writing visible underneath that you can almost read. Also the internal resistance checks 15, 85, 115, 95 after deducting 30mohm for the charger. The weight was also light at 46.1 to 46.3 gr. They are being tested now but I will not see the results until tomorrow. Any suggestions ??

Writing underneath the wrap that can barely be read is how all authentic 30Q are. You’ll notice there’s no date code on the 30Q outer wrap, because it’s printed underneath on the can. You can check Mooch’s post here showing what the can should look like under the wrap - note each battery varies a bit in exactly how the codes are oriented: https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/threads/samsung-30q-20a-3000mah-18650-bench-retest-results-a-great-15a-3000mah-battery.727190/

If you’re talking about the button top, we add that ourselves, that’s not Samsung. I believe we have a couple subtly different buttons that we add on that are all equivalent so it’s possible one may be 2 holes and one may be 3, I could check that on Monday as I’m not at the office now. I think they’re all supposed to be 2 vents. Also if you’re talking about the button top, we add a clear wrap over it to secure the button top. If you’re talking about flat top and not button, then please clarify what you’re referring to as vent holes.

It sounds like you’re using an Opus or one of its clones - these are notorious for having very unreliable IR readings. If you do multiple readings in a row, you’ll probably see different readings. I recommend kinda jiggling the battery in the contacts to clean off any residue on the contacts too and then redoing it, a few times. Getting different readings this way tells you it’s the charger. We’ve found the Opus is pretty useless for IR readings, the readings you’re getting sound exactly like what we typically get on an opus. They’re great for charging and capacity testing but not good for IR testing.

We test all our batches very carefully with a procedure way beyond any competitor including high and low power testing, IR and impedance testing, etc, so it’s extremely unlikely you would get any bad batteries. We’ve not had anyone get a counterfeit battery in our entire company’s history. We have had some rare cases of abuse by the shipping company on their way to you internally damaging the battery and causing it to rise significantly in IR, but that’s very rare. If that were to happen we’d replace them of course.

Hopefully that clears things up.

contactcr · 2018-06-15T22:30:08.000Z

Can you just put them in a battery holder with lead wires? What qualifies as a device?

Here’s a (probably) garbage power bank:

LiitoKala or Miller single cell chargers? Might cannibalize your charger sales.

Cableboy123 · 2018-06-15T22:37:44.000Z

Just moved from Freeport to Myrtle Beach. Grew up on LI. Nassau county.

puglife2 · 2018-06-15T22:47:45.000Z

open a warehouse in canada

Jon-LiionWholesale · 2018-06-15T22:50:03.000Z

contactcr:

Can you just put them in a battery holder with lead wires? What qualifies as a device?

Here’s a (probably) garbage power bank:

LiitoKala or Miller single cell chargers? Might cannibalize your charger sales.

The technical definition is that the batteries have to power the device, and they say that it should be the equipment that the batteries are intended for. So chargers definitely don’t work. I definitely considered the battery holder with lead wires…that one is a grey area. I’m honestly pretty worried that people would hurt themselves though. And it would be a pretty tough sell if in the future sometime they actually did start enforcing this and questioned us about it. I feel like the fans and flashlights wouldn’t have this issue.

The cheap power bank option is one that we might do, but the cost I believe is a little more than the fans. And power banks have their own weird special regulations so I want to steer clear of that.

Right now the really tough thing to find is inexpensive devices for 18350s and 26650s.

14500’s are a funny one because I briefly considered sending a AA flashlight. A 14500 will totally power a typical AA flashlight….for about 2 seconds before the LED burns out ;). Obviously decided against it because I do want the gifts to have some value.

nquinn · 2018-06-15T23:06:37.000Z

Damn. My last 2 orders with with them instead of illumn because their overall price was lower taking shipping into account.

Sounds like they may not be the best option for small orders anymore.

CNCman · 2018-06-15T23:14:34.000Z

Jon-LiionWholesale:

CNCman:

This may be somewhat off topic but the 30Q batteries I recieved from LIION Wholesale do NOT appear to be Authentic. They only have 2 vents and the wrapping looks suspicious as well, with some writing visible underneath that you can almost read. Also the internal resistance checks 15, 85, 115, 95 after deducting 30mohm for the charger. The weight was also light at 46.1 to 46.3 gr. They are being tested now but I will not see the results until tomorrow. Any suggestions ??

Writing underneath the wrap that can barely be read is how all authentic 30Q are. You’ll notice there’s no date code on the 30Q outer wrap, because it’s printed underneath on the can. You can check Mooch’s post here showing what the can should look like under the wrap - note each battery varies a bit in exactly how the codes are oriented: https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/threads/samsung-30q-20a-3000mah-18650-bench-retest-results-a-great-15a-3000mah-battery.727190/

If you’re talking about the button top, we add that ourselves, that’s not Samsung. I believe we have a couple subtly different buttons that we add on that are all equivalent so it’s possible one may be 2 holes and one may be 3, I could check that on Monday as I’m not at the office now. I think they’re all supposed to be 2 vents. Also if you’re talking about the button top, we add a clear wrap over it to secure the button top. If you’re talking about flat top and not button, then please clarify what you’re referring to as vent holes.

It sounds like you’re using an Opus or one of its clones - these are notorious for having very unreliable IR readings. If you do multiple readings in a row, you’ll probably see different readings. I recommend kinda jiggling the battery in the contacts to clean off any residue on the contacts too and then redoing it, a few times. Getting different readings this way tells you it’s the charger. We’ve found the Opus is pretty useless for IR readings, the readings you’re getting sound exactly like what we typically get on an opus. They’re great for charging and capacity testing but not good for IR testing.

We test all our batches very carefully with a procedure way beyond any competitor including high and low power testing, IR and impedance testing, etc, so it’s extremely unlikely you would get any bad batteries. We’ve not had anyone get a counterfeit battery in our entire company’s history. We have had some rare cases of abuse by the shipping company on their way to you internally damaging the battery and causing it to rise significantly in IR, but that’s very rare. If that were to happen we’d replace them of course.

Hopefully that clears things up.

Thanks ” Jon-LiionWholesale ” for helping with that. I’m new here and make mistakes often, Sorry about that, I edited that earlier comment in hopes it would not be seen and hurt LIION Wholesales in any way, My Bad, I should have read the description fully. Also I was not aware of the OPUS BT C3100 v2 problem. You are correct, that is the one I have but maybe not for long. Do you have a suggestion for a reliable charger / tester ?

snakebite · 2018-06-15T23:49:24.000Z

i am surprised there are no cheap 14500/16340/18350 plastic “tea lights” made primarily for shipping dummies.
a plastic box with a 5mm led and some minor parts.
in large qty these would cost a few pennies to make.
and could actually be useful in a power failure.
set a few of them around for just enough light to not stumble.
or mark it as a universal power emergency light and use a simple slider type holder.
a legitimate but ultra cheap item.

Jon-LiionWholesale · 2018-06-15T23:57:09.000Z

CNCman:

Jon-LiionWholesale:

CNCman:

This may be somewhat off topic but the 30Q batteries I recieved from LIION Wholesale do NOT appear to be Authentic. They only have 2 vents and the wrapping looks suspicious as well, with some writing visible underneath that you can almost read. Also the internal resistance checks 15, 85, 115, 95 after deducting 30mohm for the charger. The weight was also light at 46.1 to 46.3 gr. They are being tested now but I will not see the results until tomorrow. Any suggestions ??

Writing underneath the wrap that can barely be read is how all authentic 30Q are. You’ll notice there’s no date code on the 30Q outer wrap, because it’s printed underneath on the can. You can check Mooch’s post here showing what the can should look like under the wrap - note each battery varies a bit in exactly how the codes are oriented: https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/threads/samsung-30q-20a-3000mah-18650-bench-retest-results-a-great-15a-3000mah-battery.727190/

If you’re talking about the button top, we add that ourselves, that’s not Samsung. I believe we have a couple subtly different buttons that we add on that are all equivalent so it’s possible one may be 2 holes and one may be 3, I could check that on Monday as I’m not at the office now. I think they’re all supposed to be 2 vents. Also if you’re talking about the button top, we add a clear wrap over it to secure the button top. If you’re talking about flat top and not button, then please clarify what you’re referring to as vent holes.

It sounds like you’re using an Opus or one of its clones - these are notorious for having very unreliable IR readings. If you do multiple readings in a row, you’ll probably see different readings. I recommend kinda jiggling the battery in the contacts to clean off any residue on the contacts too and then redoing it, a few times. Getting different readings this way tells you it’s the charger. We’ve found the Opus is pretty useless for IR readings, the readings you’re getting sound exactly like what we typically get on an opus. They’re great for charging and capacity testing but not good for IR testing.

We test all our batches very carefully with a procedure way beyond any competitor including high and low power testing, IR and impedance testing, etc, so it’s extremely unlikely you would get any bad batteries. We’ve not had anyone get a counterfeit battery in our entire company’s history. We have had some rare cases of abuse by the shipping company on their way to you internally damaging the battery and causing it to rise significantly in IR, but that’s very rare. If that were to happen we’d replace them of course.

Hopefully that clears things up.

Thanks ” Jon-LiionWholesale ” for helping with that. I’m new here and make mistakes often, Sorry about that, I edited that earlier comment in hopes it would not be seen and hurt LIION Wholesales in any way, My Bad, I should have read the description fully. Also I was not aware of the OPUS BT C3100 v2 problem. You are correct, that is the one I have but maybe not for long. Do you have a suggestion for a reliable charger / tester ?

No charger does IR that well because of the way the spring contacts work and how variable the resistance is in the spring contacts. Not to mention that it takes its own dedicated circuitry. You need a more dedicated IR tester if you really want IR. We actually do sell one that is just as accurate as our much more expensive industrial equipment that isn’t super expensive, here: Vapcell YR1030 Internal Resistance Tester KIT – Liion Wholesale Batteries

Honestly though I think the Opus is great for someone who just wants to make sure their batteries are still putting out plenty of life. As I mentioned, the capacity test part of it is great. I think IR is overkill for most.

Jon-LiionWholesale · 2018-06-15T23:56:29.000Z

snakebite:

i am surprised there are no cheap 14500/16340/18350 plastic “tea lights” made primarily for shipping dummies.
a plastic box with a 5mm led and some minor parts.
in large qty these would cost a few pennies to make.
and could actually be useful in a power failure.
set a few of them around for just enough light to not stumble.
or mark it as a universal power emergency light and use a simple slider type holder.
a legitimate but ultra cheap item.

That’s actually a really good suggestion and something I’ll look into, thanks!

Macka17 · 2018-06-16T00:29:36.000Z

Hmmm.
Try shipping in and out of Australia.
We buy Aust clothing, presents. For US/Canada Grandkids x 8. The shipping is often up to 3 times the cost of the clothing.

Anything from China. is usually fair or free price but 30 to 45 days point to point.
and freight for warranty returns. makes everything disposable.
(IE don’t work. throw it away) Paypal is ok. To a point.

It’s just taken me near a week to find a supplier that will ship any battery to Aust.
The cost now is at the point I’ll just buy from AUST dealers.
They work out the same price near enuff. and you don’t have to wait over a month for a maybe… delivery.
Quite a few orders recently are non arrival or DOA.

Must admit though. Ebay\Paypal since ’96 I’ve only had this DOA and Non arrival since I started dealing with China…

US Japan and EU. Most have never been a problem till a couple in the last coupla yrs.