The KOTO Ski Swap opens to shoppers on Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the garage of the Wilkinson Public Library on West Pacific Avenue. In its October 19 announcement, KOTO wrote "New year, new platform!" and moved consignment to MySkiSwap. Sellers now create an account and enter their inventory online before they bring anything in.
That shift moves the swap's most important decisions earlier in the week. You set a price, choose whether to discount it in the final hour, and pick a backup plan for unsold gear at home, at a screen, before Friday drop-off. Saturday's crowd then decides which of those choices pays off.
Price, Discount and Fallback Are Set at Registration
The 2026 MySkiSwap page for the Telluride swap lists the steps. Sign in or create an account, build your inventory by following the prompts, then bring the physical items to Friday check-in. Volunteers take each item, print a tag and attach it there. Once the sale starts, you can log into your account and see what has sold.
The step that matters most comes during online entry. The consignor sets the price. The consignor also decides whether to apply the end-of-sale discount, which KOTO calls the "EOS Discount" or "Red Dot," and chooses how big it is. Red-dot items drop in price during the last hour of the sale, and KOTO says it will not discount anything without the consignor's consent. That last hour is 3 to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
KOTO's own advice treats price as a choice about what happens to the item afterward:
Do you want the item sold/out of your garage? Price it to sell! Do you want to come back on Sunday to pick up the item if it doesn't sell? Price it higher. On the fence? Price it in the middle with a discount.
In other words, you choose your outcome ahead of time. Pricing to sell clears the gear out, pricing high commits you to a Sunday trip back to the garage, and a red dot leaves the outcome to whoever is shopping between 3 and 4 p.m.
What a Sale Returns
Selling costs something before and after the sale. Each item costs $1 per tag, paid at Friday check-in in cash or by Venmo. The MySkiSwap event page lists a 25% consignment fee and a 3% credit card surcharge. On a pair of skis that sells for $200, the consignment fee takes $50, leaving $150, and the seller has already paid $1 for the tag.
You can also give the proceeds away. KOTO accepts donations of gear or of sale proceeds. Tell the volunteers at drop-off and they will note it. All proceeds support KOTO-FM, which the swap page describes as a nonprofit, noncommercial, non-underwritten community radio station on the air since 1975. In its coverage of last year's event, the Telluride Times called the swap KOTO's largest annual fundraiser.
Four Days in One Garage
The Visit Telluride listing gives the dates as November 13 to 15. KOTO's schedule runs one day longer, Friday, November 13, through Monday, November 16, and KOTO's version is the one sellers should plan around.
- Friday, November 13. Individual sellers check in and drop off gear from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tags are $1 each, cash or Venmo.
- Saturday, November 14. Volunteers shop a pre-sale from 8:30 to 10 a.m. The public sale runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the discount hour is 3 to 4 p.m.
- Sunday, November 15. Sellers collect payouts and unsold gear from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Monday, November 16. The After-the-Swap Swap runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is pay what you can, cash or Venmo only, for gear left over or donated after Sunday checkout.
The shopping day is in the middle of the list. The deadlines that matter to sellers sit on either side of it.
Sunday Between 10 and 3
KOTO is firm about Sunday. Any unsold item not picked up between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. becomes a donation to KOTO, "no exceptions." The FAQ presents the same rule as an option. If you decide after drop-off that you would rather donate the gear, just skip Sunday pickup.
Gear left in the garage goes down a set path. Unclaimed items are offered at Monday's pay-what-you-can sale, with that money also going to KOTO. Whatever is still there after Monday goes to Second Chance Thrift Shop.
This is where pricing on Friday ties back to the calendar. A seller who prices high to protect an item's value has also committed to coming back during a five-hour window on Sunday. If that seller is out of town or busy that day, the high price works the same as a donation. On Monday, the same gear might sell for whatever a shopper chooses to pay.
For buyers, Monday is a different event with its own rules. It runs three hours, cash or Venmo only, with no posted prices. The selection depends entirely on what sellers left behind the day before.
The First Pick Goes to Volunteers
The only shopping before 10 a.m. Saturday is the 8:30 volunteer pre-swap, and KOTO's announcement says so directly: "volunteers shop the pre-swap early!" Shifts run from Thursday through Monday. KOTO asks volunteers to read the role descriptions because "things will be a bit different this year," which fits a first year on a new check-in and tagging system.
The scale explains why KOTO needs the help. The Telluride Times reported that last year's swap ran on more than 100 volunteers and served over 1,500 shoppers. In 2022, the paper reported that the swap was returning to its longtime home in the Wilkinson garage after two years canceled by the pandemic. This year's swap is the first one run through MySkiSwap.
What the Weekend Has Been Paired With
The Visit Telluride listing for 2026 also mentions buying a discounted ski pass and the annual Freestyle FREE-Ride. As of this writing, neither KOTO's schedule nor the listing gives this year's times, places or prices for those two events. The past offers some guidance.
- The pass. Last year, the Telluride Times reported that Telluride Ski Resort held its Early Season Winter Pass Sale at the Oak Street Gondola Plaza sales office during swap weekend, with the sale ending on Sunday. In 2022, discounted local passes were sold at the same Oak Street office, and the local pass renewal deadline fell on the Saturday of the swap.
- The FREE-Ride. In 2022, it was a free rail jam at the base of Chair 8 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the resort's Park Crew, DJ Squoze and gear giveaways. In 2019, the Telluride Daily Planet described it at Oak Street Gondola Plaza, with music, followed by awards and a skate session at The Drop Boardshop.
Those are earlier years, not this year's plans. Check with Telluride Ski Resort for 2026 pass terms before counting on a swap-weekend deadline. For sellers, the dates already fixed are Friday drop-off from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday pickup from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the online inventory finished before either.
Lars Carlson has lived and worked in Telluride since the late 1980s, and community events like the KOTO Ski Swap are part of what he has seen the town keep going over that time. If you are thinking about a property here and want an advisor who follows the town's calendar as closely as its market, contact Lars Carlson to request a confidential consultation.
