QUICK ANSWER
Keepa Product Finder for first 6 months — included in your existing €19/month Keepa Premium, lower false-positive rate, faster lead-to-buy time. Tactical Arbitrage for once you're past £20K/month and have time-budget for bulk supplier scanning. TA's £79/month only pays back if you can dedicate 6-10 hours a week to processing its output. Most under-£20K UK sellers waste money on TA.
The fundamental difference
Keepa Product Finder starts from amazon.co.uk and works backwards. You filter the catalogue: "show me FBA listings between £15-£60, BSR under 100K, monthly sold over 25, with a 90-day buy-box stability score above 70%, excluding electronics and beauty." It returns ASINs. You then need to find a supplier for each.
Tactical Arbitrage starts from a supplier and works forwards. You upload a CSV of supplier products (or use TA's pre-loaded supplier list), TA scans Amazon for matches, returns "this £8 product matches an Amazon ASIN selling for £24 with X BSR — net ROI 47%."
Both end with "ASIN + supplier link." Different paths.
Where Keepa Product Finder wins
- Cost. It's included in Keepa Premium (~£16/mo). TA is £79-149/mo on top.
- Lower false positives. You're filtering directly on Amazon data — BSR, sold count, buy-box. Once an ASIN passes your filters, supplier-finding is the only failure mode. TA returns supplier-side matches that often fail on Amazon-side checks (saturated buy box, IP claim, hazmat, gated).
- UK marketplace native. Keepa data is identical across geos. TA's pre-loaded supplier list is heavily US-skewed; UK-specific suppliers need manual CSV uploads.
- Faster decision loop. 30-50 ASINs in your filter result, manually source-find each. No bulk noise.
Where Tactical Arbitrage wins
- Bulk processing. If you can afford to ignore 90% of the output, TA scanning a 50,000-product wholesale catalogue can surface deals you'd never find catalogue-side. Used well, this is a moat.
- Reverse-search supplier discovery. Upload your existing replens to TA's reverse search and find the same product on lower-priced suppliers. This is genuinely useful and Keepa can't do it.
- Wholesale sourcing. If you have a wholesale account with a UK distributor and they give you a price list, TA chews through it overnight. Keepa Product Finder cannot.
- Library mode. TA can re-scan saved supplier lists weekly so you catch price changes that turn unprofitable products into deals.
The false-positive problem
This is what TA marketing pages bury. A typical TA scan of a generic UK supplier returns ~500 "matches." Of those:
- ~40% are wrong-product matches (UPC matched, but the listing is for a different size/colour/bundle).
- ~30% are correct matches with insufficient sales velocity (BSR > 200K, won't replenish).
- ~15% are correct matches with eligibility/IP/hazmat issues TA didn't catch.
- ~10% are saturated buy-box situations (15+ FBA sellers — race to the bottom).
- ~5% are real, profitable, replenishable opportunities.
You're doing 6-10 hours of filter-and-validate work per scan to extract the 5%. That's TA's hidden tax.
Comparison table
| Aspect | Keepa Product Finder | Tactical Arbitrage |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Amazon → supplier | Supplier → Amazon |
| UK-specific | Native | Manual CSV |
| Cost | Included in Keepa | £79-149/mo |
| False-positive rate | Low (~10-15%) | High (~85-90%) |
| Time-to-first-deal | 15-30 min | 2-6 hrs |
| Best for | £0-20K/mo | £20K+/mo with team |
The verdict for UK FBA
For under-£20K/month UK OA: Keepa Product Finder. You're already paying Keepa anyway. Add SAS for deal validation and you're done — total tool stack ~£30/month.
For £20K+/month with at least one VA processing leads: Tactical Arbitrage on top of Keepa. The bulk supplier scanning genuinely surfaces deals catalogue-side filtering won't. Budget 6-10 hours/week for output processing.
If you're new and considering TA before Keepa Product Finder: don't. You'll burn £200-400 and not understand why nothing converts.
FAQ
Is Tactical Arbitrage worth it for UK Amazon sellers?
Only above ~£20K/month with at least one team member processing the output. Below that, the false-positive rate (~85-90%) means you'll spend 6-10 hours/week filtering for the 5-15% real deals — Keepa Product Finder gets you to the same outcome faster and ~£80/month cheaper.
Can I use TA without a Keepa Premium subscription?
TA pulls Keepa data under the hood, but its own subscription doesn't include Keepa. You'll need both — TA at £79-149/month plus Keepa Premium at ~£16/month.
Does Keepa Product Finder work for wholesale sourcing?
Partially. Keepa Product Finder filters Amazon-side; you still need to source-match each ASIN manually. For pre-existing wholesale price lists with hundreds of products, TA's reverse search is faster.
Which has better UK supplier coverage?
Neither has native UK supplier coverage as such — TA has a US-heavy pre-loaded list. For UK-only OA, you upload your own supplier CSV to TA, or work catalogue-down via Keepa. Most UK OA operators do the latter.
How long does it take to find a profitable ASIN with each tool?
Keepa Product Finder + manual sourcing: 15-30 minutes per qualified deal. TA: 2-6 hours per scan, 5-15 qualified deals per scan. TA wins per-hour-spent if you have time-budget; Keepa Product Finder wins on time-to-first-deal.
Can I replace TA entirely with Keepa Product Finder?
Yes for solo UK OA replenishers under ~£30K/month. Above that, TA's library/reverse-search functions become genuinely useful. Below that, Keepa Product Finder + SAS does everything you need.
Educational content from a live UK Amazon FBA operator. Not financial, legal, or tax advice — talk to a qualified UK accountant for your specifics. Tool features and prices change; check the vendor's site before subscribing.
Related from the Method FBA blog: Keepa for UK FBA — chart-reading tutorial · A2A arbitrage UK · £5K Amazon FBA UK playbook · All recommended tools.