What happened to the price of batteries?!

TXZane · Dec 1, 2015

Just a few months ago I bought a truck battery and I
swear it only cost about $65. Now I go back to the
same store and all the batteries are over $100!
Most of them are around about $125. Checked
around and all the stores are close to this same
price. What happened?

Steve@Advance · Dec 1, 2015

Sounds like you got a heck of a deal for $65! They been $100+ for a at least 3 years now.

ohiojim · Dec 1, 2015

yea, i second what steve said

LarryH · Dec 1, 2015

we still sell them for 65

GordoSD · Dec 1, 2015

Last lead smelter in the US was closed by EPA about19 months ago> no more lead mining in US. So we either use recycled lead from old batteries or we buy lead from China. Now we are talking serious sipping $

pete black · Dec 1, 2015

Probably because the epa forced the closure of lead smelting plants in 2014.

Dan in Ohio · Dec 1, 2015

The same thing that happened to everything else, except our wages.

old · Dec 1, 2015

Very simple when the EPA shut down lead mining and all that has to do with it well lead has gotten hard to come by so cost is up and that in turn cause batteries to go up in price. Lot of people here in Missouri lost there jobs due to that

Gambles · Dec 1, 2015

The $65 battery was probably an Exide, a battery that usually sweats all the time and seems to always corrode the fastest.
The price has gone up because too many people are now destroying the battery right before the warranty is up and then getting a new one. While the EPA, shipping costs and the price of lead have all increased the price of a battery, consumer fraud is leading the way. (The price of lead hasn't risen too much. If it had, the price of a core would have gone up and it hasn't) I repeatedly hear somebody bragging how they manage to get a new battery under warranty. It's costing everybody.
BTW, Wally World now has a battery in several sizes for under $50 bucks that only has a one year warranty, again proof that their warranty costs are a big factor in the price of a battery.

TXZane · Dec 1, 2015

I remember when they closed the last lead smelter and remember a price jump at that time. kinda thought it was a little odd that the prices jumped that high all of a sudden. Isn't the price of lead way down just like the price of other metals?

Old weldor · Dec 1, 2015

The junk batterys go to China where they melt the lead, make bullets, and sell them to Iraq and Afganistan militants to shoot at our servicemen who are fighting over there!

RayP(MI) · Dec 1, 2015

They also cut and shortened warranty terms about a year ago.

gtractorfan · Dec 1, 2015

Sounds like what else is going on, coal is in the crosshairs.

wilson ind · Dec 1, 2015

In Interstate regional store. Several pallets new batteries labeled KOREA.

Dave in Tx · Dec 1, 2015

cores are 18 bucks to 90 bucks here.

LAA · Dec 1, 2015

The Chinese middleman is being cut out, the zerobammy administration has been funneling guns and ammunition straight to Isis.

jimg.allentown · Dec 1, 2015

I don't know where you are getting your information, BUT....
We have not been mining lead here for many years. It comes into the ports. I could not tell you how many loads of white lead I hauled from Dundalk, MD, New Haven, CT, and the Port of Albany in New York. But for sure it was more than 100. As I recall, a lot of it came from Chile. I delivered some to the Exide plant in Reading, PA and most of it to East Penn Manufacturing in Lyon Station, PA. East Penn makes Deka batteries as well as many other brands.
The smelter for recycling used batteries was located at the Exide plant in Reading. I also delivered many loads of used batteries there. The smelter was shut down because it was simply WORN OUT!!! It was no longer safe to operate.

FYI, East Penn was in the process of building their own smelter the last I knew. Somehow I do not think that they would invest millions of dollars into something that was "illegal" so to speak.

Also, the price I get for used batteries is the highest it has been in many years. I even got over $5.00 for lawn tractor batteries that formerly paid NOTHING!! The last batch of batteries that I took in got me $14 each. I got $18 each for a pair of 31s I had. I haven't brought any in for a while, but as far as I know, the prices are still up while most other scrap is down.

This would warrant some researching.......

ShadetreeRet · Dec 1, 2015

I believe you are right out the length of the warranty contributing to the price of a battery. I have two Walmart batteries in my vehicles. Both batteries had one year warranties, and I was a little surprised the other day when I realized that one is four years old and the other is five years old.

Gambles · Dec 1, 2015

I realize that a core charge for a heavy truck or tractor battery is higher than a regular car battery, but the core for a plain-jane car battery is $10 here any place that you buy it, the same price that it has been for well over 10 years. I see the sign in the O'Reilly window that they will pay a measly $5 for an outright "we'll take it off your hands" battery.

HenryO · Dec 2, 2015

Wally world is selling a cheapie for $79. they had a pallet on the main floor yesterday.

dhermesc · Dec 2, 2015

Lead went up with all the other metals - then went back down - with all the other commodities.

4wdtom · Dec 2, 2015

You mean external_link forced the closing

farmboy48 · Dec 3, 2015

Here in western ND I got three bucks for old batteries, and 3 cents a pound for aluminum cans last week. Wally world has 18 dollar core charge, and local co-op has 15 dollar core charge

What happened to the price of batteries?!

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