The four options, and what each one costs
Selling privately, through a local group, a club noticeboard or a marketplace listing, pays the most and costs the most effort. You write the listing, answer the questions, meet the buyer or post the parcel, and absorb the dispute if they decide it was not as described. For a high value paddle in excellent condition it is often worth it.
Selling through a general marketplace reaches the most buyers and takes the largest cut once fees and shipping are accounted for. It also puts you in competition with every other listing of the same model, which on a popular paddle is a lot of listings.
A specialist trade in is the least effort: you describe the paddle, send photos, accept an offer, ship it. The trade is convenience against the private sale premium, and it is worth being honest that you are making that trade.
Keeping it as a backup paddle is a real option and an underrated one. A second paddle in the car is worth more than the small sum a tired paddle fetches.
Four things that move an offer
Photograph the face in raking light, not straight on. Face texture is the single biggest factor in what a used paddle is worth, and flat lighting hides it in both directions. It will not flatter a worn face and it will not do a good one justice.
Say what is wrong with it. An accurately described flaw costs you less than a discovered one, because the discovered one means a revised offer after the paddle has already shipped. Nobody grading paddles is surprised by an edge guard scuff; they are surprised by a rattle that was not mentioned.
Include the grip. A paddle with a fresh grip presents better, and it is the cheapest improvement available to you.
Know the model, exactly. Core thickness and shape are often the difference between two paddles with the same name, and a quote against the wrong variant gets corrected at inspection.
What a trade in here involves
You describe the paddle and send photos, which are required, because an offer made without them is a guess. A person reviews it and comes back within 24 hours with an offer in RePaddle store credit. Trade ins are paid in store credit only: no cash, no PayPal, no Venmo.
We email you a prepaid label once you accept. Postage is on us. Credit is issued once the paddle arrives and has been graded against the same twelve points every paddle in the shop is graded against.
If it grades out differently from the description, we email the revised offer and issue nothing until you accept it. Decline and we send the paddle back, with return postage at your expense, even though getting it to us was on us. That is the part worth knowing before you ship: an accurate description is what keeps the estimate and the final offer the same number.
When not to sell
If the paddle has a dead or separated core, it has no resale value and it will be declined rather than lowballed. That is worth knowing before you pay to ship it anywhere.
If it is a current flagship in Mint condition and you are patient, a private sale will beat any trade in offer, because you are capturing the premium that the convenience otherwise buys.
And if you are replacing it with another paddle anyway, store credit is worth more to you than its face value in cash, which is the only situation where the trade is unambiguously in your favour.