Every ski shop has the corner. Last season’s rental skis, the boards that are a model year old, forty pairs of boots with two winters in them. They cost real money, they are not going back in the rental fleet, and they are sold one at a time to whoever asks, at whatever the person behind the counter thinks is fair that day. The corner is where margin goes to die.
Used rental gear is a second revenue stream with its own season, which starts the week the lifts close. Treated as inventory with a listed price and a sales channel, it clears in weeks; treated as a corner, it clears in years. This post covers how Ribbe’s fleet sales module runs that process for a ski shop, from listing a unit to reading the report.
A rental unit in Ribbe is an asset with a tag, a history and a book value. Listing it for sale does not take it out of the system; it adds a listing with an asking price and one decision: does it keep renting while it waits for a buyer?
Keep renting until it sells. The unit stays in the fleet and keeps earning; bookings still land on it. Right for late-season listings, demo fleets and anything you would rather rent twice more than sell today.
Hold it back for sale. The unit leaves availability now, so nothing new can be booked onto it. Right for the spring clearance, when the gear is cleaned, waxed and on a rack.
Either way the unit is still the same asset with the same tag, which is what lets the register tell the difference between renting it and selling it.
Fleet sales in Ribbe: rental units listed for sale with cost, asking price, condition and whether they keep renting while listed
Listing starts from the Assets page: select the units, choose “List for sale”, and Ribbe quotes a price for each from a default percentage of what the unit cost. Override any unit, or set one price for all. The asking price lives on the listing, not on a retail product, so forty pairs of different vintages sell through one “used skis” retail item at forty different prices without creating forty SKUs.
If a unit is out on a rental or booked ahead, the quote says so before you commit. Nothing is listed by surprise.
Retail store interior with racks of colorful clothing
A standing listing sells whenever a buyer turns up. A clearance sale is a named event with an end date: “Spring clearance 2027”, 1 April to 15 May. Units are listed into it, the sale can be shown on your website, and when the date passes anything unsold goes back into the rental fleet on its own. No spreadsheet of what was in the sale, no forgotten units stuck in a “for sale” status in October.
Run one for skis and boards in April, another for boots and helmets in May when the ski buyers have gone, and compare them in the report afterwards.
Each site can show its listings on the storefront: a used-gear page lists every unit for sale with its price, and a clearance sale gets its own page. Customers add a unit to the cart and pay like any other online order. A one-of-one listing comes off the page the moment it sells, so two people cannot buy the same pair.
The units show the retail product’s photo. If you want buyers to see the actual pair, photograph the rack and put it on the clearance page in the website builder.
The shop's used-gear page on its Ribbe storefront: listed units with condition, price and an add-to-cart button
At the register, scanning a listed unit’s tag asks “Sell it or rent it?” when the unit is still renting, and rings up the sale at the asking price when it is held back. The Fleet sales page and the asset’s own page both have a Sell button that opens the POS with the unit on a new ticket. The sold line carries the unit’s identity, so the asset is marked Sold, leaves the fleet and the sale is tied to that exact pair for ever.
Everything else on the ticket, a wax kit, a lock, a season pass to the tune shop, is ordinary retail at the POS.
The Fleet sales report, under Reports, shows the listing lifecycle for a date range or a single clearance sale:
What it tells you
Listed, sold, withdrawn, expired
How much of the rack moved and how much went back to the fleet.
Proceeds vs asking vs book value
Whether the default percentage of cost is right, and the gain or loss against straight-line book.
Days on market
How long a unit sits at a given price before it sells.
Sell-through by cohort
Whether two-season skis clear faster than three-season skis, and at what discount.
Online versus counter, by sale.
After one spring you know what to charge next spring. After two, you know whether to retire skis at two seasons or three, which is a fleet buying decision most shops make by feel.
Last week of lifts: list the units you are retiring with “keep renting” so they earn through closing weekend.
Closing day: create the spring clearance sale with an end date, move the units into it as “held for sale”, show it on the website.
First week: email last season’s renters a link to the clearance page; they already know the gear and have the boot sizes on file.
Counter: rack by length with the asking price on the tag; the register knows the price from the tag.
Sale end: unsold units go back to the fleet automatically; read the report and set next year’s percentage.
Fleet sales sits beside the rest of Ribbe’s ski rental software: the same assets you fit and set bindings on all winter are the ones you sell in April, with their full history attached.
Turn the corner into a clearance sale Ribbe lists retired rental skis and boards for sale from the fleet, sells them online and at the counter, and reports proceeds against book value. Start a free trial. Start a free trial