GroovyMojo.com

Got a cell phone, digital camera, or PDA with a proprietary rechargeable battery that’s dead or dying?

Have you gone looking for how much it’s going to cost to replace it, and finding the answer, come away suffering chest pains and cold sweats?

That happened to me when my little Toshiba digital camera needed a new battery. Going to Toshiba, their cost for the battery was $80. Knowing I could find it cheaper elsewhere, I Googled the part number and found many less expensive alternatives, all ranging in the $25 - $45 range (and up).

Then I searched eBay. Sure enough, several vendors carried the battery, and one of them featured a “Buy It Now” price of $1.45.

A dollar and forty-five cents.

Figuring that at price, even if they didn’t work it was worth a try, so I bought two of them. The shipping direct from Hong Kong was less than $10. The batteries worked perfectly, with the same performance as the original.

Since then I’ve also bought cell phone batteries for the same rock bottom price. Next will be a replacement battery for my Sony Clie.

Says something about the huge markup in rechargeable batteries, doesn’t it?