I purchased this battery today (02/28/2019). There is a $15 core on this battery in IL. The red top on the positive terminal has to be removed. The cap contains replacement screws and washers to be used if the side terminals are utilized. Also included in the kit is a height adapter to make sure the battery can be properly fitted into the equipment's mounting system. This battery came in a box, but the battery itself has a "3/18" manufacture sticker on the side, so open the box if you want to know how long this battery has been on the shelf. Even after being on the shelf for a year, my charger says it had 64% of it's charge. The included instructions have a table and information about verifying that the battery is good (after charging.) In a day or two I will know if this battery came off the shelf in good working order or not.

I put this new ETX15 battery in my Sportsman 500, and it worked for 1 1/2 years, then one day was dead. I tried all the tricks to bring an AGM battery back to life, but this battery's voltage will not go above 9 volts. I would expect it to last much longer than that.