<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="FIXED" FACE="Courier New" LANG="0">Spoonoids:
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<BR> My cell phone is about eight months old, into a two year contract, and its battery has started to sag a little. When the phone was new, the battery would last five or six days on standby, if I didn't make any calls. And if I made a few calls, I would hardly notice the shorter time between charging sessions. But now, the battery lasts only a couple days and I worry about it going dead in the middle of a call.
<BR> So I decided to buy it a new battery. Went to my friendly local Major-National-Brand-Cell-Phone-Company store at the mall to price a new battery, thinking these guys are going to want too much for it, but I would check there first, just to see. I was thinking 15 or 20 bucks would be way overpriced.
<BR> The smiling man at the Cell-Phone store wanted $78.95. I successfully resisted the temptation to laugh right in the man's face, and calmly told him that was a little more than I was planning to pay. He assured me that this was a "Lithium Ion Battery," very expensive to produce, and that is what they cost. However, if I were to buy an accessory, like a hands-free-set, or a charger, he would give me 10 percent off the whole deal, including the battery. Well, no thank you very much, see you later, alligator.
<BR> When I signed up for the cell phone service in the first place, I paid them like 50 bucks for two phones, and agreed to pay an exorbitant monthly fee for two years, plus more each month, if I used more than the allotted block of minutes. Were they giving away $160 worth of batteries with those two phones for $50? I know they make back their investment in the equipment over the two year life of the contract in the monthly fees, but I’ll just bet those batteries aren't worth $80 a pop. <BR> OK. I headed over to my friendly local Batteries Plus ™ store to see what they wanted for the same battery. The pleasant man there looked it up in his book, and by golly, that little baby will cost me $39.95. That's a little more than I was planning to pay. Well, this is a "Lithium Ion Battery" you know, and he assured me that his price was a good deal, and I was unlikely to find it cheaper in this town, and he did have one in stock. He didn't say whether that was a good deal for him, or for me. Since I don't really need it today, I think I will shop around some more, thanks anyway. <BR> Time to check the Internet! I went home and tuned in to Yahoo ™ , typed in the part number I found printed on the battery itself, and came up with 15 hits. Lemme see, here's one for $80; another outfit wants $75; hey, how about $67; there's one for $44, and even better $35. Seems the best I could find was a reputable looking company in Texas that wanted $23 for one battery, or two for $20 each, plus about $5 shipping. Some other companies advertised used batteries for $5, but I already have two used batteries that I am not happy with. I was almost ready to buy the two at twenty bucks, but decided I hadn't yet looked hard enough. <BR> Look out eBay ™, here we come. Did a search on the phone manufacturer and part number with the word battery, and ended up with a slew of hits. The best deal I found was $5.50 per battery, plus about $5 shipping. I checked the seller's eBay feedback score, and sent him an e-mail asking some inane question about the quality of his batteries. He answered the same day with an affirmative response, so I knew somebody there was paying attention to their business. It looked legit enough for me, so I placed a bid at $5.50 on two of his separate auctions. Two days later the auctions ended with me as the only bidder, so I sent him $16, and received the two batteries in the mail, four days later.
<BR> The batteries both work fine, recharge fine, really are "Lithium Ion Batteries," and I'm back to five or six days between recharging. I feel so proud of myself for being a smart shopper.
<BR> Hey, $16 (no tax) beats $160 (plus tax) any day of the week.
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<BR>Later, John.
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