Thinkpads Forum

I'm looking for a couple of batteries for some older Thinkpads, specifically a T60p and an X200.

Is there a currently acclaimed best source or sources? eBay? Any particular sellers?

I went random-eBay-seller route for batteries for X31 and X21 a while back, but predictably the batteries weren't super great (including shoddy electronics on the X21 one). Should I expect something better, or is this what we can get?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Lenovo lists those for triple-figures, which I think is perhaps a bit expensive. What are the prices like when they run a sale?

I did a couple of forum searches for "battery" and "batteries," the best threads I found in first 20 pages of results were:
- "Replacement Battery" in the T60 forum, where there's a post recommending Anker on Amazon in addition to the usual routes, and they seem pretty well rated there - anyone else here have experience with those?
- "Best place to buy a battery" in the T400 forum, with recommendations for Dr Battery and Intelligent Batteries. Both of these are pretty close to me, but their X200 batteries look undersized in terms of Ah/W compared to stock
- "The lottery called Lenovo/X200 batteries" in the X200 forum, with some recommendations for cmp_battery2011 on eBay, who claims to sell proper-sized reasonably-priced batteries, but no reports after more than 4-5 months

Anything else I've missed? Anyone else you'd particularly recommend?

Thanks!

(And if someone here happens to have flush-fitting batteries for T60 and X200 specifically, here's my WTB thread.)

eBay batteries from random sellers have been hit-and-miss for me over the last several years. Most of the recent purchases have been for my X60 (8-cell) and Z61p (9-cell) systems. Occasionally you can find some good deals like unopened, 0 cycle batteries for under $30 but it's pretty rare:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300849365026 (40Y7003 for $26)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/280933728001 (40Y6797 for $28; was subject to recall and received a new replacement from Lenovo)

I generally stay away from eBay sellers who list multiple items they are invariably aftermarket units. Constructing searches using FRU numbers and sniping help a lot to find and win these gems.

As far as the "best, cheap, official" battery source, I'd go with the Lenovo Outlet store ( http://outlet.lenovo.com/ ) but they don't always have what you need.