What are you paying for your cells?

I have decided to start this thread as sort of a database of prices we can use to follow the trends of laptop batteries over time.

The purpose of this thread is for everyone to bring together the prices they are paying for your cells. This way we can track how market trends are changing over time, and if it is a good time to buy as many laptop batteries as you can (low price)or if it's a good time to sell them (high price).

I am from the US, so I am naturally inclined to use the dollar. But I am open to other suggestions.

Here is the information you will need to state:

Location

Price per battery OR price per pound

Where you bought them. You do not have to state where you got them specifically, (I know we like to hide our sources for good reasons) but tell us what sort of place you got them from. For example, I got my batteries at a scrapyard, or I got my batteries at a computer repair store, or I got my batteries at a computer recycling center, something like that. This will allow us to know what is currently the cheapest source for laptop batteries in maximum quantities without disclosing exactly where you are getting them.

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Here is mine:

I am from the US, The state of Michigan

I paid $1.25 per pound for my cells

I bought them at a scrapyard.

I can sometimes find them free from stores like batteries plus or other battery stores that also recycle batteries, but usually I only get anywhere from 5-20 batteries. By going to a scrapyard, I can get wellover 100 of them all in one go .

I don't know if this thread will be useful for anyone, but I hope it will give us all a chance to collaborate, share prices, and find the best companies to source cells from at the lowest cost.

In the beginning, I bought some on eBay for around $2 per pack. Since then, I have a constant local supplier who sells them to me by the "box", which usually comes out to around 25-30 cents per pack. He has given me about 500 packs so far in the past 8 months. I'm processing far faster than he is supplying though and need to find more suppliers.

I bought my first lot from ebay at around $2.50 per laptop pack. Now I get then from a semi-local computer recycle center for $1.50 per POUND.

I was given my first 1000 packs, then the price went to 1.00 per battery then 1.50, 2.00 - then I refused to buy them any more and it dropped to a KG rate. I got cells from dozens of places snice and have had well over 10,000 laptop packs come through my workshop.

Just called my usual suppliers, looks like i've been running them dry.

I just called up a PC recycling center and struck a deal with them. I am going to buy all 100lbs of laptop batteries they have for $2.25 a pound. I checked the local price on lithium-ion and apparently it is going up. Ugh, I'll have to call up some PC repair stores then.

I think people are starting to catch onto this laptop battery scrapping movement in my State, so prices are going up.

I think i've learned if you can find a scrapyard who even takes lithium-ion, they tend to have the lowest prices. Don't even bother with the really big yards though. They just don't have time to deal with your bullshit and will tell you to f*ck off with some stupid excuse like "what you are doing is extremelydangerous, you'll burn down your house yada yada yada". The smaller yards and stores are more willing to work with me though...

I also called my local home depot about getting ahold of drill batteries. They will let me pick through the bin there, but they aren't going to save any for me. I offered to pay for them, but they still wouldn't save them. At least the only good thing about this is if I find any, I won't need to pay for them.

We don't have a ton of suppliers near where I am, so I offer them $1 per pack or $2 for 9+ cell packs. I may be able to get them cheaper but this gives them an incentive to save or acquire them for me, where there may not be adequate supply otherwise.

But admittedly I bought my first 2 packs from ebay for $8 us. But only once.

sells them to me by the "box", which usually comes out to around 25-30 cents per pack

Click to expand...

Hey Mike, mind wanting to sell some of those super cheap cells??

Korishan said:

sells them to me by the "box", which usually comes out to around 25-30 cents per pack

Click to expand...

Hey Mike, mind wanting to sell some of those super cheap cells??

Click to expand...

Nope, sorry Looking to buy more myself.

Oh drat

gota try ...lol

UPDATE:

I went to the recycling center and I talked the guy down to $1.50 per pound because he really wanted to get them moving. I told him that most of my local yards are paying $1-$1.5 per pound and that $2.25 was quite high. Anyway, let's just say I found another source of cells for $1.50 per pound. Also, the guy apparently gets in laptop batteries all the time, and he told me to call back next month and he will have another 100lbs to give to me.

NEW HAUL:

I went to a scrap yard and got my best price yet, $1 a pound for cells. I got 200lb of laptop batteries for $200 flat. They also allowed me to cherry-pick the cells. I grabbed all the levono packs, as those in my experiences have the best capacity.

Sweet!

Where are you located near? I'm in Northern Central Florida (Gainesville area).

Hi all,

Unfortunately, I have had much higher prices and even probably had to pick from the left overs, based on some of the comments by 'Ebay sellers" here on the forum. I started at about .60 cents/cell unprocessed which fairly quickly went to .85 cents a cell, unprocessed on the Ebay market. That was it for me! Then, I was on hbpowerwall's live chat, and found there were some with extra cells. A search of youtube, an email or two, and now I'm getting processed cells for about .75 cents a cell or less.

I WISH I DIDNT SEE THE "$300 DIY TESLA POWERWALL" (you know who he is) on Youtube, it kinda makes me mad because he really should take that down.

Paul

Looking for the most commonly used/Lowest cost 18650 cells for Low Continuous Current requirement.
Max Continuous and Peak Current <= 1/12th Cell/Bank Capacity.
Charging Current = Half Cell/Bank Capacity.

I have been requesting Quotes for +500 and +1000 New Cells.
Some of the replies have suggested Cells that I was not aware of such as LG INR18650F1L

LG INR18650F1L(Rated 3350mAh) (1.5C Max 4.875A)

*PANAS0NIC NCR18650BE (Rated 3200mAh) (Typical 3180mAh) (1.1C Max 3.63A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650G(Rated 3400mAh) (Typical 3550mAh) (1.3C Max 4.87A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650 (Rated 2700mAh) (Typical 2900mAh) (2C Max 5.8A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650D (Rated 2700mAh) (Typical 2550mAh) (2C Max 5.1A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650F (Rated 2700mAh) (Typical 2900mAh) (2C Max 5.8A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650A (Rated 2900mAh) (Typical 3070mAh) (2C Max 6.14A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650B (Rated 3200mAh) (Typical 3350mAh) (2C Max 6.7A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650BF (Rated 3200mAh) (Typical 3350mAh) (2C Max 6.7A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650E (Rated 2100mAh) (Typical 2250mAh) (3C Max 6.75A)
*PANAS0NIC NCR18650BL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Typical 3350mAh) (2C Max 7A)

Any suggestions for other Suitable Quality Cells?

Thanks,
Gazza

Korishan said:

Sweet!

Where are you located near? I'm in Northern Central Florida (Gainesville area).

Click to expand...

I live in Michigan, near detroit. No, we are nowhere close so It isn't practical to resell these to you.

Here in michigan, there are literally dozens of scrapyards all within a 30 minute drive from myhouse. Each scrapyard competes not only on price when you go to drop off scrap, but also in price if the yard is open to buy scrap. For me, this is great. I have an almost constant supply of laptop batteries and many sources to get it from who are all forced to compete on the lowest price just for me .

So has anyone run the numbers on buying 500+ lots new WRT scrounging and recycling old battery packs?

I'm buying packs at $1.5-$3.0AU from a local computer recycler, he told me he couldn't give them away or even dump them last year nobody would take them lol
I think Pete has single handily turned used laptop batteries into something of worth!

So far I have been lucky and found a great secret source. I haven't paid for a single pack.