Opinion needed on possible purchase

[LINK398]

So I've been thinking of purchasing these two Game Boy Advance SP consoles that are supposedly "broken". They basically don't hold a charge but the question is there a really good chance of that just being the batteries needing to be replaced or could it be something else and if it is possible to be something else what are the most common problems with these handheld consoles

[Satoshi_Matrix]

The GBA SP uses a custom lithium ion battery that can be recharged 500 times before it will discharge easily. Given the amount of time, most GBA SPs by now will begin to suffer from this. In the overwhelming liklihood, this is what it going on with that listing. You need to buy new batteries.

Its kinda like how the GBC Pokemon games used a battery for the real time clock. Those batteries are mostly dead now, so if you saw a Pokemon Gold listing for example labelled "broken", then it's probably just the battery that needs replacing.

could be more, but I doubt it without more info to go off of.

[wiggyx]

Yes, you need new batteries.

Abridged version.

[davidbrit2]

Protip: you can use the higher capacity battery from the original DS in a GBA SP. You have to cut off a small plastic nub to make it fit (a sharp knife will do the trick), but it works great. That might be a little easier than tracking down a GBA battery.