Ebay or CPA ?

It's no secret that I'm huge into eBay here.

I'll take some of the cons you have on eBay, and see if I can't give you some peace-of-mind here;


CONS (Ebay)
-Huge Competition, Numerous Sellers
-This just means DATA! It's perfectly fine that there are other people out there selling items - and selling the same things as you - because it also means that you know HOW to sell them. In addition, chances are they don't know HOW to sell them - and there are ALWAYS ways to undercut them (and I don't mean price). You can still sell more, and faster than them - because when you see others sell the same items you sell - it means you have data to make decisions - and it's not something to shy away from.
-Sellers have sniper programs that can drive the prices down per penny.
It's a common misconception that 'lowering the price increases turnover'. That is not the case at all. The secret to selling on eBay is to RANK higher. That should be the main concern of eBay sellers after establishing a fair market worth of your items. Once you know this, then you know how much to sell an item for AND the format to sell it in. The behavior of the item is also known, and you won't lose money on anything.
-Risk in finding suppliers and getting merchandise as promised.
There are a LOT of ways of getting merchandise to sell on eBay - and the wonderful thing about eBay is that the market worth is HIGHLY predictable BEFORE you sell on eBay, therefore, negotiations are also highly accurate for profit--no matter the source
-Buyers are a pain...want everything for nothing.
This can, and is true of many media - where customer service is involved - however there are ways of cutting this headache down DRAMATICALLY. And that is in a well-developed brand-funnel. When you accurately sell the product (NOT DESCRIBE IT) and sell YOURSELF (something not everyone does) then your complaints PLUMMET and your conversion rates SKYROCKET!

Great questions! I've dabbled a little bit in CPA, both as a promoter and as an advertiser, and I still go to eBay - mostly because the huge PRO between the two is the data collection and decision making for eBay is WAY lower.

With CPA, you're spending a lot of money to find what 'works' for you. Sometimes, in the thousands of dollars. It's creation, split testing, tracking, hosting of software (such as Prosper 202), etc.

I'll never say 'don't do it', because people can do whatever they want, of course. But I'd rather not spend money on data collection when the profitability is known on eBay right in front of me. Not through trial-and-error with CPA.

^^^
Haven't pursued either yet...but studying ebay right now.

I hear of Glory Stories of Guys making $ on CPA.

I was hoping that someone would chime in who has done both.

Thanks for the input!