18650 Bulk Cell Pricing and Battery Supplier

I've been thinking of forming a business selling 18650 cells in the near future though first need to set up a website to sell them through and somewhere to store them. I'm thinking of making an initial purchase of 1000 or more cells to start off most likely either from Batterybro or nkon. What Barriers would there be to becoming a supplier in California.

I don't think there are really any barriers to entry other than selling them at a better price than the other USA competitors. You would have to buy huge lots somehow from like china. I'm not even sure if you can order them direct from the manufacturer so you would need to order them from a supplier in china to get cheap prices.

How do you expect to compete against some of the established companies like imrbatteries.com or https://liionwholesale.com/



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I could probably offer a welded pack solution since neither of the two suppliers you mentioned seem to offer it. Though this is still a while off for me. I would probably buy or build a resistance spot welder though I would prefer maybe building or modifying a TIG welder into a a Pulse arc welder for copper electrical connections.

Also what would be good cells to offer, I'm thinking Panasonic NCR18650GA, Samsung 30q and 25r, and the other brands similar capacity cells as well.

Selling individual cells you are going to want to sell the ones the flashlight guys and E-Cig guys use. You would have to visit their forums to see what is popular.

Nobody builds welded packs, that is something you could consider doing. I was trying to find someone in USA to build a pack for someone here in the forum and couldn't find anyone.

Anyone in the ebike community needs lots of cells, unless you can get them real cheap they will just order from Nkon directly.