Batteries: Pays to shop around
m...@privacy.net
but today I need one 9 volt and three AA
batteries for stuff at home
I don't want a years worth of batteries
and local Walmart seems to only sell
mega packs of them anymore. However they
did have a single 9 volt for $3.50 and
pack of four AA's for another $3.50
Being the tightwad I am I decided to
check Big Lots. Sure enough.... one 9
volt for $1.50 and three AA pack for
$1.70
WTF!? That much mark up on batteries?
Sheesh!!
SMS
Batteries have a tremendous mark-up. I was talking to my friend the
other day who needed to buy a battery for a piece of medical equipment
for his mother. He went to Rite Aid and the battery was $15. He had no
frame of reference and he just paid it. Later he saw the same battery at
Longs Drug store (a chain out west just bought by CVS) for $6. Yeah, you
often have to buy big packs at Costco or such to get decent prices,
though Walgreen's often has good deals on 4 packs.
Daiso has good prices on small quantities of batteries, including the
often outrageously priced coin cell batteries. They have started
expanding into the U.S. (CA and WA so far).
m...@privacy.net
>Yeah, you
>often have to buy big packs at Costco or such to get decent prices,
>though Walgreen's often has good deals on 4 packs.
Well say I did buy a mega pack...... just how long is
the shelf life of the cells?
is it cost effective to buy a mega pack and wait years
to use them up? Or best to buy just what you need?
And does storing the cells in the fridge help life any?
Dave Garland
Still sounds high. I can get 9V alkaline in 4-packs at Aldi's for
$3.99 (and one of the stores remaindered some of the packs for $2.99,
so I stocked up.. don't know if that was a misprice or they just
really wanted to get rid of them).
Alkaline AA and AAA I figure 4/$1 is an acceptable price. MicroCenter
has them on sale for that occasionally. Menard's (a regional
building-supply chain) sometimes has them for less, maybe 5-6/$1, if
you're willing to buy in 24-packs. I've seen similar deals as
advertised specials at one of the auto-supply chains (Checker, I
think). Fortunately, alkalines have good shelf life, new ones should
be dated for use maybe 4 years into the future and seem to have some
decent life left in them even years beyond that. So stock up. I'm
still using some Fuji C-cells that I (over)stocked from a liquidator
who was going out of business, and I think they're at least 5 years
beyond their shelf date now. That's pushing it a bit, I overestimated
how many I'd use.
Dave
clams_casino
Big lot batteries may not be all that fresh. Some AA's I bought at
Christmas went quickly after just about dozen or so pictures in my
Camera.
meow...@care2.com
If its a digital cam thats normal. Get Nimh instead
NT
m...@privacy.net
>Still sounds high. I can get 9V alkaline in 4-packs at Aldi's for
>$3.99 (and one of the stores remaindered some of the packs for $2.99,
>so I stocked up.. don't know if that was a misprice or they just
>really wanted to get rid of them).
Wow Aldis's... I never thought abt checking them for
batteries!
Thanks will go check
m...@privacy.net
wrote:
>Still sounds high. I can get 9V alkaline in 4-packs at Aldi's for
>$3.99 (and one of the stores remaindered some of the packs for $2.99,
>so I stocked up.. don't know if that was a misprice or they just
>really wanted to get rid of them).
Just checked my local Aldis and all they
had wass AA and AAA....... their brand
name
is that what yours has? Their brand
name?
m...@privacy.net
<PeterG...@DrunkinClam.com> wrote:
>Big lot batteries may not be all that fresh.
The ones I bough were Kodak brand and
had use by day of 2013
Were the ones you buy at Big Lots the
Kodak brand?
Rod Speed
> SMS <scharf...@geemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, you
>> often have to buy big packs at Costco or such to get decent prices,
>> though Walgreen's often has good deals on 4 packs.
> Well say I did buy a mega pack...... just how long is the shelf life of the cells?
A hell of a long time with the best brands, like 7 years or so.
> is it cost effective to buy a mega pack and wait years to use them up?
Yes.
> Or best to buy just what you need?
Hardly ever.
> And does storing the cells in the fridge help life any?
No point when they last 7 years without that.
Dave Garland
> Just checked my local Aldis and all they
> had wass AA and AAA....... their brand
> name
>
> is that what yours has? Their brand
> name?
Yeah. "Phaser" or something like that. Maybe they're discontinued,
and that's why the price was good.
9V are definitely the hardest ones to find good prices on.
Dave
George
But cheap often doesn't mean value. Those ChiCom "fuji-novel" brand
batteries they have are real junk compared to others.
m...@privacy.net
>> Just checked my local Aldis and all they
>> had wass AA and AAA....... their brand
>> name
>>
>> is that what yours has? Their brand
>> name?
>
>Yeah. "Phaser" or something like that. Maybe they're discontinued,
>and that's why the price was good.
yep that was it "Phaser"
I guess they are ok?
m...@privacy.net
>Big lot batteries may not be all that fresh.
Well the ones my local Big Lot had were Kodak brand and
had use by dates of 2013 or so
m...@privacy.net
>Those ChiCom "fuji-novel" brand
>batteries they have are real junk compared to others.
How so?
What has been your experience with them?
Dave Garland
> yep that was it "Phaser"
>
> I guess they are ok?
Yeah, they're generic Chinese batteries (like most of the less
expensive batteries). I haven't had any problems.
Dave
Dave Garland
> But cheap often doesn't mean value. Those ChiCom "fuji-novel" brand
> batteries they have are real junk compared to others.
Fuji isn't Chinese. And I'm still using Fuji C-cells that expired in
2005 (what can I say, they were a good deal and I overbought).
I actually haven't found Chinese batteries to be much different from
US batteries. Maybe a bit more likely to leak. But half the price.
Duracells might be worth it for survival gear, but not around the house.
Dave
clams_casino
Considering the crap cameras & printers that Kodak has been trying to
sell over the past 20 years (the company is down to about 15k employees
from over 100k perhaps 10 years ago), I'd be very leery of buying any
product with their name on it.
m...@privacy.net
>Considering the crap cameras & printers that Kodak has been trying to
>sell over the past 20 years (the company is down to about 15k employees
>from over 100k perhaps 10 years ago), I'd be very leery of buying any
>product with their name on it.
Hmmm.... OK
Are their printers really crap as well? I'm in market
for printer and looked at Kodak printers based on their
claims of cheap ink... but if printer crap that's no
good either
m...@privacy.net
>>Well the ones my local Big Lot had were Kodak brand and
>>had use by dates of 2013 or so
>>
>>
>
>Considering the crap cameras & printers that Kodak has been trying to
>sell over the past 20 years (the company is down to about 15k employees
>from over 100k perhaps 10 years ago), I'd be very leery of buying any
>product with their name on it.
I just assumed the Kodak batteries were made by
Duracell or Energizer as I didn't think Kodak had a
facility to make their own batteries. yes?
clams_casino
I bought one this past summer with the potential for reduced ink cost.
It was nothing but problems where i finally dumped it after a few months.
For a start, it took about two weeks of daily (automatic) installations
before it finally settled down to my computer. It was painfully slow
and it's gimmick for low cost is that it simply puts out a minimum of
ink. The fast draft on my current HP is darker than the full best
print mode on the Kodak unit. That's probably OK if faint copies with
skips are acceptable, but I print a lot of postage labels that
concerned me as to whether the PO could read the faint print. The
biggest problem, however, was that at least one in ten prints would not
print because the unit could not judge the paper size - very annoying.
Printing the back side (refeeding a printed sheet) worked perhaps half
the time. About one in twenty would simply jamb. Did I say it was S
L O W? They make a real crappy printer. No wonder they have to
pay celebrities to push on infomercials & sell it via Walmart. It's
crap. DON'T even think about it.
clams_casino
They are likely made in some factory in China as much of their stuff is
made there today.
m...@privacy.net
>No wonder they have to
>pay celebrities to push on infomercials & sell it via Walmart. It's
>crap. DON'T even think about it.
Ok thanks so much for heads up!
I will stick with HP printer then
clams_casino
I picked up an HP 3-in-1 4480 printer at Staples for $50 on black
Friday afternoon - haven't had a jam, misfeed, problem yet after about
two reams of printings.
Only observation is that it does use more ink than I think it needs for
the draft setting, but it runs so problem free that I'll overlook some
extra ink usage.
I thought about giving away my Kodak printer, but couldn't come up with
someone I hated that much.
D i a n e .
When those disposable cameras came in to be developed, the AA batteries
were removed and thrown into a box. Employees could take 'em for free,
until the suits decided they could be sold....maybe that's what you got:
fuji, kodak.
Just FYI,
m...@privacy.net
Hmm interesting
Could be!!
Dave Garland
> When those disposable cameras came in to be developed, the AA batteries
> were removed and thrown into a box. Employees could take 'em for free,
> until the suits decided they could be sold....maybe that's what you got:
> fuji, kodak.
Could be. The Fujis I had were factory blister packs, but I have also
seen (Kodak?) batteries that had obviously been repackaged, with maybe
a tiny legend that they were "removed from equipment".
Dave
www.Queensbridge.us
> I don't use a lot of alkaline batteries
> but today I need one 9 volt and three AA
> batteries for stuff at home
>
> I don't want a years worth of batteries
> and local Walmart seems to only sell
> mega packs of them anymore. However they
> did have a single 9 volt for $3.50 and
> pack of four AA's for another $3.50
I buy my 9 V batteries for 99¢ from a 99¢ store.
Sometimes buy old fashion {zinc carbon?} there for unit that needs
them.
Otherwise
I buy NiMh batteries from eBay sellers and have been very satisfied.
Recently bought some Energizer NiMh there that wife says are awesome
in her camera.
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