Recently when I wanted to recommend someone the Vapex gumsticks that I use, noticed the first 2 listings that come up upon searching for "Vapex gumstick" are from 2 individuals who re-sell these batteries at 10 times the original price, while the manufacturer appears last. They also have ridiculous shipping quotes, which is again indicating these people want to ripoff others who may not know that these gumstick batteries are still made. There are 2 remarks I want to make: 1. There are quite a few manufacturers of these gumstick batteries, including the lithium based ones with step-down converter. So really not worth spending on these more than they're worth. 2. Vintage gumsticks even if still in working condition, have much reduced capacity. Usually the NiMH ones can still hold a charge, while the NiCd ones are (mostly) unusable. This said, I recommend the Vapex gumsticks, but buy only from the manufacturer. User is vapextech and it's registered as a business seller. Here is the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/371451382056 Fortunately not many have actually bought these overpriced batteries, but wanted to share so newbies in this hobby don't get fooled.
Thanks for the warning. I have been debating whether to get a few of these gumsticks for my old MZ-R900 MD players for about... a year now But the gondola with 1AA battery holder and an Eneloop lasts for about 2 months in my case! So why bother? Well, it would be cool to drop that stupid 1AA holder, certainly. But Low Self Discharge NiMh are fantastic and unbeatable. I remember well the old gumsticks and how they were dead in a couple weeks, it seemed, of being sat around. (Now if they made gumsticks that were low self discharge I would be buying them, but we all know that will never happen due to minuscule demand.) EDIT: My first NiMh AA cells were from Radio Shack around 1997'ish, a 4 pack, gold metallic, with made in France and rated 1000Mah. Wow Golly Gosh!! Around $20 if I remember. (Old Radio Shack catalogs would list these.) And I even got the special charger too. A dismal disappointment and mystifying almost-retrograde performance. Their self discharge rate was phenomenal. Charge and use at once or they would be half dead in a week of sat doing nothing. Or so I seem to recall.
I think these gumsticks are worth getting, but this may vary with individual expectations of course. For people reading this, do keep in mind you will also need a charger (I use the XTAR VC4SL). They sold over 10.000 pcs, more than one would expect. Compared to AAs the demand is tiny, but enough for manufacturing to make sense and for the quality to be good. About self-discharge, have not done measurements to be able to say exact numbers, but haven't found this to be a problem and I do keep these stored for relatively long periods. In fact I recently opened a sealed Vapex gumstick which sat stored for more than a year and it still had a charge: not much, but the walkman I used it on was able to turn on and run for a short period. Interesting story about the RadioShack AA cells. Back then the NiMH technology was in its infancy as NiCd was still the norm and recharghables weren't as popular as they are nowadays. I do remember having a pair of SONY NiMH batteries (together with a SONY charger) in the same time period and indeed they weren't great: low capacity and high self-discharge rate. But at the time it looked like something innovative as NiCd cells' memory effect was a big problem (it's the reason NiCd has gone extinct). Nowadays even generic AA NiMH batteries are decent, while top quality ones (Eneloop Pro for example) are excellent.
I might have to get a few of these Vapex gumsticks then, to see how they do, might be ok after all then! Yes the NiCd memory effects. One can mitigate those to a good extent with a lot of discipline in their use and proper modern chargers. I have a lot of the Panasonic Cadnica C's and AA's for various outside solar lights and other obsolete incandescent Petzl headlamps. As you know, they are great for certain niche applications, when routine full deep discharge is expected. Some of those AA NiCd's have been brutalized over 6 seasons outside and they work great as long as the contacts are cleaned regularly. Definitely my favourite battery chemistry. (I'm just waiting for Graphene to somehow be used by Sanyo in a consumer AA, perhaps it could endow another great leap in performance...)
