Carbon-fiber amperometry is a real-time analytical tool to detect vesicle release events from individual secretory cells. This study compared the spike events released in response to local or global depolarization. We describe each spike shape that regularly occurs, as well as those shapes of spikes that occur with less frequency, but reproducibly. We compare how frequently each type of spike occurs, and compare their amplitudes and kinetics to the commonly accepted spike release events. Analysis of the amperometric peaks typically discarded from single cell amperometry recordings may reveal unappreciated phenomena related to the release of secretory vesicles.