AA NiCad's: bad luck with Radio Shack "High-Capacity" batteries

I have since switched to NiMH batteries for many of my AA rechargeable
battery needs (walkie-talkies, cameras) but I still need NiCad's for
devices that originally came with NiCad batteries and corresponding
charging circuits; CD players that both my kids were given 12/25/03, a
Garrity flashlight that came with four 600 mAh NiCad's, and my
Norelco razor that I replace the batteries on with 600 mAh RS batteries
that come with terminal strips.

A couple years ago I bought a couple packs of AA "high-capacity"
NiCad's from Radio Shack. I first bought some blue ones (cat. #
23-149A) rated 1000 mAh expecting much longer usage times. Instead I
got performance much worse than the yellow Eveready's I had been
using (capacity not stated on the battery) and than some yellow
Sanyo's I had been using (600 mAh), and by "much worse" I mean
probably less than 1/3 of the usage time (I've used them in
walkie-talkies, and in AA flashlights). I didn't bitch to RS
thinking maybe I ought to try other batteries, so I bought some silver
ones (cat. # 23-325, 700 mAh looking for a capacity closer to that of
the yellow ones that seemed to provide more use per chg. The silver
ones also gave out after only very short usage times.

The disk players my Kids got a little over a year ago seem to play for
quite a few hours on a charge. Both Kids use them hours every day. My
daughter's started refusing a charge recently, and apparently one of
the original batteries must have been defective because it had what
looked like corrosion on it. My son's are still going strong. You
can't find NiCad's easily any more (I checked Wal-Mart, Kmart,
Target, Staples, etc.) and reluctantly went to RS again. They only
carry "high-cap." NiCad's now. I complained to the sales guy
about how poorly the RS batteries performed that I had bought in the
past. He assured me that I must have somehow abused the previous ones
I had bought, and I finally (not having a quick alternative) bought
another set of four blue ones (the only NiCad's they had). They look
a little different now and have a yellow recycling seal, and they've
left off the words "high-capacity", so I was hoping for better
performance. But it turns out they're the same batteries; 1000 mAh
cat. # 23-149A costing about $13 for 4. In neither CD player will they
accept a charge that lasts more than a few minutes (even though my
son's original JVC batteries still go for hours on a charge in either
CD player after a year of heavy use).

WHAT IS GOING ON??? To me this has been very frustrating and expensive
too (the 12 batteries I can't use cost over 30 bucks). I must admit
that the batteries I also got from RS (600 mAh yellow ones with
terminal strips) have been working well. But their high-capacity
NiCad's are horrible. I WILL return these last four (I bought them
last week). I never use any of the Radio Shack batteries with a
capacity over 600 mAh (the ones in my razor being the only RS
rechargeable that I use). I still use my older yellow batteries and
get much more use out of them (Kids' Walkies, flash lights).

I don't know where to get batteries to get my daughter's CD player
working (without an adapter). Should I order on-line and pay the cost
of batteries plus S&H? What vendor? What type and capacity of
battery? Can anyone come up with an explanation of my experiences with
these "high capacity batteries"? By the way, I do try not to abuse
the batteries; I charge them fully before first use, I try to
deep-cycle them to prevent the memory effect, I don't drop them. In
any case, the JVC's, and the yellow ones (the Eveready's and
particularly the Sanyo's) work well under similar usage conditions.

Any help on this would be much appreciated. Please E-mail a copy of
your reply to as will so I don't miss it. Thanks
much again.

Ben