Buyer Beware: How To Spot Counterfeit Batteries
"Buyer beware" is a phrase with which many of us are probably familiar. Translated from "caveat emptor" in Latin, it's a concept that, as you might be able to guess, has been around for quite some time. Obviously there would be no need for this sort of saying unless there was some sort of risk involved in business, but apparently even Ancient Roman markets had their share of scam artists and dishonest businesspeople.
Fast forward to present day, and things are different, but still very similar. With the advent of the internet and all of the information it makes readily available to its users, it has become easier to find out about who you are buying from, or whether or not the claims they make about their "amazing" and "superior" products are true. It all makes it much easier to be an "educated consumer" and protect yourself from being swindled.
The downside to this new technology, though, is that the scam artists and crooks have access to them too. And they are constantly coming up with new loopholes and tricks to get around all the ways consumers have found to try to protect themselves and their investments.
Case in point: We at ShopXtreme like to do our homework on our competition. We like to stay well-informed about their products and the offers they give consumers. After all, they are our competition.
We recently purchased what was advertised by one of our competitors as an original Canon battery. Despite being advertised as a genuine OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) battery, it was priced significantly lower than a similar Canon battery would, so we were suspicious from the get-go. Our suspicions were confirmed when we received the battery in the mail, and compared it to a similar battery that we were sure was manufactured by Canon.
We've put together a step-by-step analysis for all of our readers and customers (and the friends and families of our readers and customers) that details what the differences are between a genuine OEM and a supposed OEM battery. We've included some pictures as well, so you can see the differences for yourself:
In this photo, we show both batteries in their packaging, side by side. They are different models, but very similar in function and production. As you can see, they both have a holographic Canon sticker on the top left corner. The packaging looks very similar, but the NB-2LH looks slightly whiter. Not many noticeable differences at this first glance.- Next, we look at the quality of the type on each of the packages. If you look carefully, you will notice that the NB-2LH packaging looks much less sharp than that of the NB-1LH. The lowercase T's, as well as the lowercase A's and E's are noticeably less sharp than on the NB-2LH
packaging. The NB-2LH type looks bolder, yet blurrier. Its edges are less sharp, especially where the two diagonal lines of the lowercase K's meet the vertical one in "Akku." Would a multinational corporation that sells professional-grade photography and imaging products have such low-quality print in their packaging? Probably not. Which leads us to believe that this is somehow recreated from an original Canon NB-2LH pacakge; it was probably scanned and reprinted using lower-grade printers. 
Following along with the quality of the lettering on the paper insert of the packaging, we will next look at the lettering on the battery itself. Looking closely at the lettering that is painted on the battery it's easy to notice some of the same issues we found with the lettering on the paper. The lettering varies in thickness and consistency; the C in "CANON" looks very thin compared to the A next to it, and even the C in "PACK." The dots over the lowercase I's are barely visible, and all of the lettering is rather blurry and has rough edges. It basically looks like it was printed on the battery with a printer that did not make suitable contact with, or did not apply even pressure as it painted the white lettering on the plastic. Again, would a multinational corporation that sells professional-grade photography and imaging products have such low-quality print in their packaging? Not very likely.
In addition to the quality of the printing of the packaging, we can look at the sealing and alignment of the packaging as well. First off, if you compare the plastic packaging and paper insert of each battery, the NB-2LH looks just plain messy. The paper does not line up with the plastic, whereas the NB-1LH's plastic and paper line up exactly. Furthermore, the NB-2LH is not even sealed. The paper can easily slide out of the plastic cover. The NB-1LH, on the other hand, has been sealed shut with adhesive. We found this out firsthand when we tried to open up the NB-1LH and the plastic tore the paper a bit.
Finally, we take a look at the stickers on the back of the battery. If you see minor imperfections or misalignment with stickers, they can give you some hints as to the battery's authenticity. If you look at this picture of the NB-2LH, you can see that the stickers that they have put on the underside of the battery don't fit quite right. The black sticker is a bit smaller, but follows the edges of the designated "sticker area" pretty well. The blue sticker, however, is slightly smaller, and the upper right corner does not match up with the edge of the sticker area at all. Compare it to a genuine NB-2LH and you can easily see the difference for yourself.
If all else fails and you are still unsure whether or not the battery you have purchased or are looking to purchase is a genuine OEM, look at the price. A typical Canon NB-2LH battery manufactured by Canon will run you about $70. We purchased this "genuine" Canon battery for less than half of that price. If you are buying a replacement NB-2LH, then such a price (or an even lower one) would be believable. However, a supposed original Canon battery would never be so cheap.
