SAN FRANCISCO—It started as an innocuous little ad on Craigslist: "As the armory transitions into being a full time event space we are in the process of selling years of accumulated furniture and props that are no longer needed for the space. Come join us from 12-5pm the 15th to view and purchase a piece of SF kinky history. No drop ins we need to have a name to give to our security team so please contact me if you would like to be a part of this historic occasion."
"It's like a sex flea market," explained Kink publicist Michael Stabile. "There are different aisles to walk down; you might even get lost among the material."
Stabile said that the first day of the sale, Thursday, June 15, brought in over $2,700, though he's not sure what all was sold—"I spoke to one person who purchased a couple of mid-century lamps. There's a lot of random stuff in there."—but he assured AVN that there's plenty left—except that the Armory's second sale day, which was supposed to be tomorrow, June 16, has been postponed a month until July 16 and 17, in part to provide for an influx of new sale items culled from Kink's vast inventory of "stuff."
"We're not selling anything that's unhygienic in terms of, there aren't any actual sex toys being sold or anything like that, but we certainly have furniture and some old couches and mattresses and things that have been used in shoots," he stated, adding that the couches and mattresses are devoid of bodily fluids. "We are also getting rid of one of our fucking machines, one of those piston-powered dildo robots, and that's about $130; everything is very reasonably priced.
"We do all kinds of shoots with all kinds of themes from cowboys to pandas to interrogation," he added. "We also have things like a creepy dentist's chair that we've used for fetish work; pieces of taxidermy; coffins and urinals and toilets—all of these things that, after shooting for ten years in the Armory, a lot of really interesting material crops up, like mannequins and birdcages and things that may have a fetish bent or may just have been a decoration for that time. Fans of Kink will recognize various items. For instance, we did a Super Mario Brothers gangbang, and we have those masks. There's a chandelier made of chains—it's all stuff that's very historic and memorable."
To give an idea just what quantity of memorabilia will be sold, it currently fills an area just a bit smaller than the Armory's Drill Court, which in recent months has become a concert venue.
And "there's still a lot left," according to Stabile, so perhaps now is the time to mark your calendars for what is sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime sale.
