Prices of lithium cells on ebay seem to have gone crazy from UK suppliers - 2-3 times what they were last year. Chinese suppliers are still pretty cheap, especially on aliexpress, but have long lead times.
What happened ? Is it due to more restrictive postal regulations ?
Shipping restrictions are more strict yeah. Here no one seems to care and just put the batteries in lettermail.
https://thepihut.com/pages/lithium-shipping"In recent years much stricter requirements around shipping lithium have been introduced by Royal Mail and our courier services, which means we have to take extra care to ensure these products are shipped safely."