Cell suppliers in Australia

Any one know of any cell suppliers in australia for authentic 30Q cells im after 86-96 cells for my build. have an order with nkon but have had no progress in over 5 weeks so im looking at canceling my order and finding somewhere local. there was no luck on my last search bnut wondering if anyone knows of a hidden gem or at least a company willing to ship to AU in a timely manner

1 Like

Techaroundyou his ebay store is normally cheaper

Had a look and they seem like standard retail prices at $8-11 a cell.

His cells are like 7 dollars max for 30q

International suppliers always work out cheaper than domestic because the domestic market is usually centred around the vaping community and those guys pay 25 bucks for a single lol.
Just checked that techaroundyou place and they are sold in pairs for 19 dollars.
IMR will offer a good discount on genuine cells but whether they turn out cheaper depends on shipping and the exchange rate at the time. 100 cells are 4.15 ea us
Nkon are fighting a few fires right now so thats maybe why the delay but in my experience cells are the hardest thing to source cheaply if you can’t wait. They always take bloody ages to arrive as does most battery supplys. Just whatever you do don’t be fooled by some of the cheaper ebay suppliers. Almost all are fake.

1 Like

Steering clear from ebay sellers. Only looking for genuine cells but I won’t be getting ripped on them. 7. 5 weeks it’s been since I placed my order with nkon. That is a little rediculous for shipping time to be honest.

2 Likes

If ur sketched about ebay sellers (not sure why) here is his site https://www.techaroundyou.com/Samsung-18650-30Q-3000mAh-3.7V-15A-High-Lithium-Rechargeable-Battery-Li-ion?search=30q

I’ve been sitting at the NKON checkout for four days with 60 cells in the cart too nervous to click buy as I don’t trust that they’ll get to me in QLD within the next 3 months…

If only there were a way a few of us here in Oz could source reliable 30Q’s in bulk and help distribute

1 Like

Buying from ebay is like buying from China direct at a mRked up price. People sell fake items for retail prices. I had a look at their reviews as mostly positive it looks mostly fake apart from a negative which spell fake cells as they don’t hold their charge. So I’m skeptical about that seller to be honest. The price is OK but they are $2 extra a cell so I might see if there is another source in the EU that will do speedy shipping to AU at least you can get cells under $6 and yes $1-$2 adds up quickly when your buying almost 100 cells that’s an extra 100-200 for no reason.

Its easy. You send a few mails to major suppliers and spend the money. Its been something that has been floating around in my mind for a few weeks now. I’m just not confident that there are enough guys like us to make it worthwhile. A distribution centre for not just cells but all good diy products would require a fairly hefty investment and I think the market is still too small for the average joe to risk the outlay. If you are talking about a syndicate? Risky with internet pals no matter how friendly things are, once you introduce money tings can very quickly get ugly and thats damaging to the community as a whole.

3 Likes

Nah I’m thinking more like a group buy or something. But the seller can ship the items directly so long as minimum order quantity is met. So basically we can organise a buy where we get people to put a reference to esk8 for example so seller knows they are part of the group. Items won’t get shipped unless minimum order amount is filled?

Had a look at that site and that $7 price tag is if you buy over 200 cells. $6.50 is kinda pushing the luck there with 500 moq I would buy them at $6-6.50 for 86-100 cells as I would like a few spare even at their cheapest price of $546 for 86 cells the same amount from nkon is $440 still a $100 mark up so I’m skeptical about local suppliers to be honest just seem like get rich quick schemes. I

After a quick email and a snappy response from https://www.techaroundyou.com/Samsung-18650-30Q-3000mAh-3.7V-15A-High-Lithium-Rechargeable-Battery-Li-ion?search=30q

For 86 cells it seems they were able to do $6 a cell which seems reasonable. I might actually buy through them when my refund comes back from nkon

1 Like

Honestly, the difference in component cost accessibility when living in the UK compared to Aus has been huge. My hobbies went into building high altitude balloons, which to do in Aus cost twice as much.

Having a physical place over here where bulk bought items at a discount price from reputable sellers (that aren’t risky in themselves of randomly disappearing) would be a dream.

Easier said than done, and yes large investment like you say. Would be one hell of a side project though. And being an engineering project manager, that excites the crap out of me.

1 Like

I have bought from Tech around you direct and they are as legit as it gets. Genuine cells and really fast delivery and response times. I would 100% recommend them.

2 Likes

Thanks this reassures me though I will be doing some research first as I only just heard of them. And the go to seems to be nkon sadly they just can’t deliver my order for some reason and the little premium markup if true and legit is worth it to have the order within days

Let’s see how nkon handles my request for a refund. They responded almost instantly with a il see what I can do and get back to you on your request yesterday.

Can pretty much guarantee they are not going to be happy about giving you a refund. I would just wait if I were you and keep hassling them about it.

Is it so expensive in Australia to buy things outside of Australia? From https://eu.nkon.nl for only 100 cells 5,16 AUD$ max. inside the EU. I think, it is a pain in the ass, right?

dont really care if they are not happy its shitty customer service to be try being on the other end, handing out money up front to not recieve a product you paid for. they had stock when i ordered. i contact them almost on a weekly basis about it and now i have lost my patience whihc i think is fair. waiting almost 2 months for an order to be shipped is rediculous. i know it was expected to be up to 5 weeks but thats long gone. i found a supplier which was mentioned above where i was able to get them for $6 a cell. yeh its an extra $100 but at least i wont be waiting months since they are in victoria so only a state away. most ide wait is a few days or a week due to them being cells. i think ive been pretty patient considering the circumstances to be honest. dont want to sound rude or anything. im sure its a one off occurance and the only reason i got them from nkon to begibn with was because they were the cheapest even after paying a hefty shipping fee to bring them in. but to have the order not even shipped after 7 weeks thats a little concerning for my taste to be honest.