Good source of batteries... If your looking for laptop batteries locally... I would avoid scrap yards/recyclers. They end up there when they are no longer usable and are tossed.
I would suggest looking up ITAD companies in your area. Stands for IT Asset Disposal. There are some big ones but there are also a lot of smaller ones. These are the guys who focus on corporate clients and handle the newer/off lease computer equipment. Try to hit the guys with warehouses under 20,000 sqf. You will find most of them in an flexspace/office park. They are in every major town.
If you want to get fancy... offer them a certificate of destruction/recycling for their records. That's what your doing after all. These guys are interested in $1,000+ items. Batteries are a hassle... If you try to pay them it gets complicated becouse you have to get setup in their accounting system. Sounds odd, but offering a free service is better than trying to pay for something that minor. Just avoid getting talked into taking alkaline and NICAD batteries. Both have a cost to dispose of correctly. (Unless you have a county disposal option avaialble) Nicad is one of the most toxic stuff out there.
~75% of corporate laptops are left plugged into the power at their desks all the time. Most of the cells have little to no cycles on them. All named brand stuff, no Chinese knock offs. I love our laptop batteries that come in from the ITAD guys.
Another great source is Modem batteries (like everyone has from internet in their house). I love those. Low cycles, no nasty glue, easy to access... The challenge is sourcing them becouse they normally are only found in large volumes.
Tool batteries... I hate them them. Pain to open up, dirty, full of glue, and on average the cells are pretty used up.
That's my experinace at least. /Guy
