When buying a battery always check the little round sticker on the side of the battery. It will have a code, e.g. A06, which means the battery was made in January 2006. Another example G05 = July 2005. A=Jan, B=FEB, C=Mar, etc. The alpha character is the month and two numbers are the year. This tells you the manufacture date of the battery. I always look for the freshest battery on the shelf. At times I've seen six month old batteries in a store.