Buying a laptop battery on Ebay

[d_jedi]

So my T23 is starting to show it's age.. one of the two batteries I have has died, and the other seems to be nearing it. I'm considering buying a new battery for it (vs. buying a new laptop - which would be significantly more expensive), as it's working just fine still otherwise and (aside from gaming) meets all of my mobile computing needs.

Buying the battery direct from IBM is significant $$ (even with a discount I get b/c a friend of mine works for IBM ), so I was thinking of going the EBay route, where prices seem quite a bit cheaper.

A few questions:
1) Where are these batteries manufactured (and will this cause a problem aka. $$ for customs at the border)?
2) How do I ensure that I'm buying a *good* *new* battery, rather than one that's dying?

[Jucius Maximus]

eBay laptop batteries generally fall into a few categories:

1) Brand new and fresh OEM battery (very rare, same as what the original manufacturer sells)
2) Brand new and stale OEM battery (less rare)
3) Forgery of brand new and fresh (sadly common, often prone to short circuit, fire hazards, etc)
4) decent quality non-OEM battery (moderately common)
5) crap quality non-OEM battery (moderately common, a fire hazard)

You probably want to look for #4 here. Both cheap and will probably perform the intended function very well. You want to look for ones with Japanese made cells; This is the main discriminator between #4 vs #5.

There's no way to know for sure whether it's a fresh battery, but this is more of an issue with OEM as opposed to non-OEM batteries.

I got a replacement battery for my sister's IBM T21 (non-OEM) for less than 50% the price of an IBM branded battery and all has been good.

Also got a stale OEM battery for my dad's Compaq and it's still working pretty well.

[dazz]

From recent stories where Sony batteries were exploding,I wouldn't trust an ebay battery.

[gthorley]

I bought a battery for my old compaq armada from this Canadian Ebay seller who has been around quite a while and sells 1000's of items each month with 98.5% positive feedback. No taxes charged and free shipping on Buy-it-now items. Paid about $60.00 total and it arrived in about 7 days by Canada post. Recognize that there are reputable businesses selling on Ebay who don't want the hassle of selling crap that will come back to haunt them. They make a good living and try to ensure you are satisfied.

I'm happy with the product which is listed as OEM but does not have Compaq name on it. Has worked fine for me so far.

http://stores.ebay.ca/justdealsca

[Siefer999]

you could remanufactur your current battery. there are some battery refill places that will remove the old cells of the battery and place in new ones so your battery will work just like new.

[d_jedi]

What do you think for this one? Good idea, or scam/fake/bad battery etc.?
http://cgi.ebay.ca/IBM-THINKPAD-T20-...QQcmdZViewItem

[pfbmgd]

you could remanufactur your current battery. there are some battery refill places that will remove the old cells of the battery and place in new ones so your battery will work just like new.

DO you have a link for the GTA area .

[gthorley]

What do you think for this one? Good idea, or scam/fake/bad battery etc.?
http://cgi.ebay.ca/IBM-THINKPAD-T20-...QQcmdZViewItem

The seller looks to be very reputable and the price is great. Email them and see if they will let you do a pick up to save shipping if you use buy it now.