OT-Before You Buy That Cell Phone Battery Locally

First, I don't do cell phones at all for a list of reasons.

So a neighbor of mine has a cell phone and the battery died. Goes to Radio Shack and they want $50 for one. Goes to a big battery store and they want $40 for it. Knowing I've ordered stuff on the Internet at good prices sometimes, asked me to see how much it is online. I find the thing for $3.44!! With shipping, 8.01.

formatting link
These places don't even try to compete with online reasonably. Just try to make a killing. Examples like this kill local businesses because people will check online first "knowing" something will be much cheaper.

Reply to
Red Green
Loading thread data ...

BUt what about the quality, it is too late after you have received it and paid for it.

Reply to
hrhofmann

formatting link

Hi, Made by same maker? I mean same brand?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Same is true for HDMI cables, at radio shack or best buy $40, at monoprice.com $5.

Some electronic items like cell batteries and HDMI cables are sold as sucker items to non-tech-savy consumers and grandma's in mass market stores, often way overpriced.

My HDMI cables from monoprice blew away monster cables in quality too, thicker gauge, rated above latest HDMI version, better neoprene rubber on jacket, same gold plugs, etc. I'm running some other monoprice HDMI cables 50 feet with no digital glitches whatsoever, 22 gauge.

Reply to
RickH

One issue I found with some vendors of cell phone batteries, both online and brick & mortar, is that the date codes on the batteries they sell are way too old. A Li-Ion battery deteriorates regardless of use. Buying a 2006 date code battery in 2009 means that you'll be lucky to get six months of use out of it.

Ironically, the best batteries I've found for my phones are the genuine Motorola BT60 batteries sold by DealExtreme, which they sell for $2.55 including shipping. Amazon charges $10.99 for the same battery, with free shipping if the order is over $25.

Batteries are extremely high margin items, but it's a real pain for the brick and mortar stores to stock the wide variety of Li-Ion batteries, and to keep the stock fresh. Plus they know that a large percentage of customers either don't know what the product should cost, or know but don't care.

Reply to
SMS

It has become my first response to shop on line, and the benefits are surely there. Even on big items, my dishwasher was roughly 50% of actual, price quoted, retail, including shipping, which suggests the local vendors were making a pretty fair profit, I doubt the online guy was doing it for nothing. I do shop locally though just to keep the stores there. When I have a broken pipe shopping online for a repair coupling seems a little too slow. I do like the fact that the online retailers keep the local merchants honest, or failing that give you an alternative. Apparently there are enough sheep around to keep most of the local brick and mortars open, let's not educate them all.

Reply to
Eric in North TX

formatting link

But even though walmart trained you to consider price only the old saying "you get what you pay for" often applies. It is well known that there are really junk low quality ChiCom knock off batteries (often in cellphone form factors) available.

Reply to
George

Monster Cable has a side business: suing everyone they can find. They even sued "Monster Day Care" for trademark infringement!

Anyone, one chap refused their extortion and wrote them a letter which begins:

"Dear Monster Lawyers,

"Let me beg "... my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement. Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands. Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me. You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction. "

I encourage all to read the whole letter - it's long, but it's a hoot!

formatting link

Reply to
HeyBub

I've had much the same experience. The local phone store replies to that "Oh, but that would void the warranty". You know the tiny screws that hold cell phone together? You can buy the tiny screw drivers on Ebay, and clean the connections on your own circuit board. And exercise the multi pin connectors yourself, too. Cell phone chargers also much cheaper online.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

-snip-

-reluctant snip-

Agree. My favorite line; "Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it."

Good one- Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

The OP started this thread using Radio Shack as the example. Have you checked the origins of the expensive batteries sold at Radio Shack? They are, for the most part, Chinese clone cells which are priced just like the name brand cells. So if I pay $30 for a Chinese cell in Radio Shack instead of getting a similar product for $5 on eBay, where does the "you get what you pay for" adage apply?

Reply to
Mike S.

Tony Hwang wrote in news:XE0Rm.52687$% snipped-for-privacy@newsfe18.iad:

EXACTLY the same.

Reply to
Red Green

George wrote in news:hf32a3$i6v$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Often true and have professed that myself. As we get experience [older:- (], hopefully we learn. Anyway, markings on the original:

Cell from Japan Manufactured in China

There is also the mindset that if it's more expensive it's better.

Reply to
Red Green

formatting link
>>

Hi, It's all case by case situation. Some batteries at RS is Japanese origin. And speaking of HDMI cable, I once had a bad one which wouldn't work on our Blue Ray DVD player hooking upto HT system. It was displaying error code. Some cheap batteries are really made cheap and it does not contain imbedded electronic sensor for proper charging.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

It's not manufactured in China. It is assembled in China. Often if you take it apart, you will see Sanyo marking on the cell.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

formatting link

I bought GENUINE LG batteries IDENTICAL to the ones i had for $1.63. No problems.

steve

Reply to
Steve Barker

Thanks, I read it, if I ever get in trouble I'd sure like somebdody like that on my side.

I'd be interested in seeing if Monster ever proceeded with proper discovery, or if they moved on.

In any case I avoid overpriced Monster products like the plague, ever since they started using "magnifying" clear insulation to make mere 18 gauge speaker wire look like it was 14 gauge, then they dont print the gauge anywhere on the roll of wire. I wasnt born yesterday, gauge matters as does the copper alloy and overall amount of surface area created by the strands. These are all measureable, but Monster chooses to hide these parameters because they sell on marketing hype not science.

Reply to
RickH

I just ordered 3pk 6ft gold-plated from Meritline for $7, free ship.

Reply to
Bob Villa

Same is true for HDMI cables, at radio shack or best buy $40, at monoprice.com $5.

Some electronic items like cell batteries and HDMI cables are sold as sucker items to non-tech-savy consumers and grandma's in mass market stores, often way overpriced.

My HDMI cables from monoprice blew away monster cables in quality too, thicker gauge, rated above latest HDMI version, better neoprene rubber on jacket, same gold plugs, etc. I'm running some other monoprice HDMI cables 50 feet with no digital glitches whatsoever, 22 gauge.

Yeah, Monoprice HDMI cables are great. I bought a home theater setup plus another HDTV about two years ago and HDMI cables were in the $60 range at that time.

So I bought a "jumbo pack" of 20 or so for around $65-- maybe $70-- from Monoprice. I used the 4-5 that I needed to hook up the new TVs and peripherals.

Then I sold the leftovers on the local craigslist for between $15-$20 each--- with one really hungry guy paid me $27. I sold out in a day and a half and made a tidy little profit!!

Almost condsidered buying a really large lot of the from Monoprice and setting up a little side business--- make a little money and teach entrepreneurism/business principles and economics to my teenager...

Reply to
Red

Tony Hwang wrote in news:XE0Rm.52687$% snipped-for-privacy@newsfe18.iad:

Followup: Battery arrived. Exactly the same as the original LG, markings and all.

Reply to
Red Green

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.