Salvaging from NEW battery packs?

Hey guys,

I was shopping for a battery pack to replace my current one on Amazon when I found these uber cheap battery packs. Has anyone tried buying NEW battery packs and salvaging those?

Links to a couple:
http://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Lithium-ion-Battery-Toshiba-PA3534U-1BRS/dp/B002V17U54/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1352596839&sr=1-2&keywords=laptop+battery+pack
http://www.amazon.com/Replacement-1005HA-H-1005HA-M-1005HA-P-Compatible/dp/B003VMIYMK/ref=sr_1_13?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1352596859&sr=1-13&keywords=laptop+battery+pack

Works to about $3 - 3.5 per battery. Dirt cheap.

There’s no guarantee that these are genuine packs, which means there’s no guarantee that there are decent cells inside them.

A friend of mine bought a super cheap battery like this and it works fine. He paid around $25.00. By the time a laptop needs a battery, it isn’t worth much anyway, so you wouldn’t want to spend much. Certainly not $100+. IMHO that would be foolish. I would say go ahead and give it a shot, yes it will not be the best, but then again, how good does it have to be?
Think of the money you save as money towards the new laptop you will buy in the future.

I got genuine Samsung battery for $30 / free shipping once (it was 6-cell pack), that’s $5/cell, definitively cheaper than getting cells separately, plus there’s guarantee of them being A-grade.
But now, same model batteries are for sale at $45 and up, making it $7.5/cell - not worth it anymore :frowning:

Quite a lot of offerings of Samsung cells from Aliexpress will go under $5 nowadays. $35 would give you 10 2000mAh Samsungs - $3.50 a cell. $45 will up you to 10x 2600mAh.

Not all laptop batteries have 18650 inside, so beware.

Edit: Not a joke btw. Some battery packs use rectangular Li-ion cells.

This all reminds me of this YouTube Video

LOL I love that video, even though it’s BS.
It’s good for tricking friends.

Yeah, but due to my location, shipping will make them very expensive - cheapest option is ~$30 DHL or EMS.
Oh, and by the way, my Samsung battery pack had Sanyo cells inside, for some reason.