Making an honest buck at PorchFest
Big festivals, like next week’s Boston Calling, tend to draw people to city centers, benefiting restaurants and retailers. But Somerville’s annual PorchFest, featuring musical acts taking to porches across the city, invites people to explore residential areas. And that provides an opportunity for a different kind of business: the yard sale.
Mandee Martin is an artist who lives in a residential neighborhood a few minutes outside Union Square. She’s lived there for eight years, in a home she owns with her husband. Right across the street each year, she sees a big crowd turn out for one of PorchFest’s bigger acts in the neighborhood, the Somerville Symphony Orkestar.
“All of metro Boston is going to be on my street,’’ she said Saturday. “I might as well make a buck.’’
Martin set up shop in her front yard Saturday afternoon, as more than 100 Orkestar onlookers poured out of the yard and into the street. She sold her own paintings and artwork, as well as some other things lying around the house—“eclectic junk,’’ as she put it. She demurred at the term “yard sale,’’ instead classifying her front yard as a “mini Brimfield,’’ referring to New England’s largest antiques show.
Martin’s cheapest sales were as low as $1, though her most expensive offering—a couple of tulip chairs—were priced at $800. Asked how much money she expected to make off her PorchFest sale, Martin said “all of it.’’
She fell a bit short of that goal, ultimately making $300, she said Sunday. “Not bad for an afternoon hanging out in the yard listening to music,’’ she said.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com