5 ms·

Ebay is better. You used to be able to get 10 for 0.99 shipped from China. They have gone up 200-300%, but now they ship from USA. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i

Ebay is better. You used to be able to get 10 for 0.99 shipped from China. They have gone up 200-300%, but now they ship from USA. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=cr2032&_sop=15 https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=cr2032&_sop=15

ericbarrett 3y ago
I would be wary of counterfeits. I got counterfeit Duracell 9V batteries from a well-known online retailer who co-mingles inventory. They dropped to about 5.5V after a month of use and, on closer inspection, were made of subtly different materials.
- DaveExeter 3y ago
  Not an issue if you buy unbranded, although I don't think there is anything special about "Duracell" batteries in terms of construction or quality control.
- newaccount74 3y ago
  Store bought Duracell AA batteries (unlikely to be fake) have a tendency to leak and destroy devices in my experience.
- massysett 3y ago
  Do you have any more details on how you identified them as counterfeit? I guess they looked good enough at first glance, so the details must be quite subtle. I’m not confident of my ability to identify counterfeit goods so I have greatly curtailed purchases from that well-known retailer that commingles inventory. Pretty much anything that might risk health or safety is something I’m scared to buy from them, which eliminates most items that use electricity - even in low voltages, as batteries can have hazardous failure modes.
  - ericbarrett 3y ago
    The battery died very quickly so I was inspecting the "best by" date to see if I had a bad batch. I then compared it to some new batteries bought at a physical store. I noticed the font and some small details were subtly different. The base plate (opposite the terminals) was plastic with a fine texture on the real product, and simple black cardboard on the fake. The stamping and forming of the metal cover was more crude on the fake as well, and the trademark copper was duller. However, there's no way I would have noticed any of these without a genuine comparison, especially if it was still in the wrapping. This was for a smoke detector, so definitely a safety issue!
usernew 3y ago
Fun fact: the reason we get quality Chinese components is because we get the ones that pass QA in factories in China and India. Buy a TV in Eastern Europe, buy a TV in the US. The one from Walmart will be fine 99% of the time, won't have a small crack, won't have random transistors pop in a year. Buy one in Poland or Bulgaria or Russia, and you have about a 75% chance it'll power up at all, and about a 50% chance it'll work in 5 years. Same TV. Something is made in China or India. About half of the production is perfect and gets sent to "The West." Then about half of that is "it's probably fine, but didn't pass QA." That last 25% is straight up dangerous and defective, and that's what you're buying on ebay. As an example, half the phone screens for iPhones don't pass QA. Those are the ones that get sold on ebay. Now, for most cases, you battery will simply live half as long. For a few cases, it'll leak, light on fire, or overvolt your circuit and destroy your device. Then all those savings on batteries you've had over the years will be wiped out and then some.
- newaccount74 3y ago
  So you are saying that there's a QA process that somehow determines which devices will have a transistor pop in a year, and then they send those to eastern Europe? That sounds... unlikely. But then again, I know nothing of chinese QA. My assumption would be that it varies greatly between factories. There's cheap stuff from China, and there's expensive stuff from China, and the quality varies accordingly.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning
  - usernew 3y ago
    You don't need to know anything about the Chinese QA process. This is how QA is done for literally everything. What exactly do you thing QA is? The cheap batteries you buy from ebay are batteries that were rejected to sell at a store in the west, and rejected to sell at a store in the east. I'm not trying to change your mind on anything here, as you seem to have your mind set before bothering to spend even a minute looking up something you stated yourself you know nothing about.
mox1 3y ago
Yes, I have bought those, as well as ones from Amazon. Either they are of very low quality (only lasts 3-6 months in my car keyfob) or just fake. I was pointing out a cheap source for quality batteries.

ericbarrett 3y ago

I would be wary of counterfeits. I got counterfeit Duracell 9V batteries from a well-known online retailer who co-mingles inventory. They dropped to about 5.5V after a month of use and, on closer inspection, were made of subtly different materials.

DaveExeter 3y ago
Not an issue if you buy unbranded, although I don't think there is anything special about "Duracell" batteries in terms of construction or quality control.
newaccount74 3y ago
Store bought Duracell AA batteries (unlikely to be fake) have a tendency to leak and destroy devices in my experience.
massysett 3y ago
Do you have any more details on how you identified them as counterfeit? I guess they looked good enough at first glance, so the details must be quite subtle. I’m not confident of my ability to identify counterfeit goods so I have greatly curtailed purchases from that well-known retailer that commingles inventory. Pretty much anything that might risk health or safety is something I’m scared to buy from them, which eliminates most items that use electricity - even in low voltages, as batteries can have hazardous failure modes.
- ericbarrett 3y ago
  The battery died very quickly so I was inspecting the "best by" date to see if I had a bad batch. I then compared it to some new batteries bought at a physical store. I noticed the font and some small details were subtly different. The base plate (opposite the terminals) was plastic with a fine texture on the real product, and simple black cardboard on the fake. The stamping and forming of the metal cover was more crude on the fake as well, and the trademark copper was duller. However, there's no way I would have noticed any of these without a genuine comparison, especially if it was still in the wrapping. This was for a smoke detector, so definitely a safety issue!

usernew 3y ago

Fun fact: the reason we get quality Chinese components is because we get the ones that pass QA in factories in China and India. Buy a TV in Eastern Europe, buy a TV in the US. The one from Walmart will be fine 99% of the time, won't have a small crack, won't have random transistors pop in a year. Buy one in Poland or Bulgaria or Russia, and you have about a 75% chance it'll power up at all, and about a 50% chance it'll work in 5 years. Same TV. Something is made in China or India. About half of the production is perfect and gets sent to "The West." Then about half of that is "it's probably fine, but didn't pass QA." That last 25% is straight up dangerous and defective, and that's what you're buying on ebay. As an example, half the phone screens for iPhones don't pass QA. Those are the ones that get sold on ebay. Now, for most cases, you battery will simply live half as long. For a few cases, it'll leak, light on fire, or overvolt your circuit and destroy your device. Then all those savings on batteries you've had over the years will be wiped out and then some.

newaccount74 3y ago
So you are saying that there's a QA process that somehow determines which devices will have a transistor pop in a year, and then they send those to eastern Europe? That sounds... unlikely. But then again, I know nothing of chinese QA. My assumption would be that it varies greatly between factories. There's cheap stuff from China, and there's expensive stuff from China, and the quality varies accordingly.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning
- usernew 3y ago
  You don't need to know anything about the Chinese QA process. This is how QA is done for literally everything. What exactly do you thing QA is? The cheap batteries you buy from ebay are batteries that were rejected to sell at a store in the west, and rejected to sell at a store in the east. I'm not trying to change your mind on anything here, as you seem to have your mind set before bothering to spend even a minute looking up something you stated yourself you know nothing about.

mox1 3y ago

Yes, I have bought those, as well as ones from Amazon. Either they are of very low quality (only lasts 3-6 months in my car keyfob) or just fake. I was pointing out a cheap source for quality batteries.