>>> I usually use fake flowers (really el cheapos from walmart) in the fall. Ooooh I'll have to check out Walmart for fall flowers. I purchased the 12 geranium plants for $3.00/ea (with 25% coupon) and got the yellow potted plant for $7.50 after the 50% Michael's coupon. If I could keep live plants ALIVE and colorful then it would be worth it...but if I buy live plants then I'd likely have to replace them at least twice per season, every year. And that would be for summer and fall. That adds up, ya know?

I know it's too late for this year, but I'm adding my experience for those who find this thread next year. We had a Frontgate or Grandin Road tree for about 5 years and it was OK until one part of the lights went out and it was pretty hard to figure out how to fix it. The Light Keeper tool mentioned above would probably have worked, but the tree was damaged during our move over the summer anyway. Plus, I have higher ceilings now so I wanted a taller tree. I found the website christmastreeforme.com quite informative about the construction and lighting of artificial trees. I was going to buy from them, but the one I liked only came with multi-colored lights and I wanted clear. I ended up finding one on the vickerman.com website. Vickerman is a wholesale company and they have a good search engine for finding the size tree you want. I then used the model number to find it online at elightbulbs.com. They had very good prices, and I noticed a Vickerman tree on the christmastreeforme.com website for a couple hundred dollars more than it was at elightbulbs.com. I ordered on a Wednesday and had my tree 5 days later, on Monday. I was nervous about getting it because I ordered less than 2 weeks before Christmas. When I emailed elightbulbs.com to check on the status, they responded quickly. I'd order from them again. The tree was easy to set up. Mine came in 4 sections and the lights had to be connected in a few places, but everything was well marked. The branches are all hinged, and it took well over an hour to fluff them out after I put the tree together. I chose a tree with Vickerman's "Dura-Lit" lights because they are supposed to stay lit even if multiple bulbs are removed or burned out. With 800 lights on the tree, I don't want to have to do a lot of troubleshooting so I hope the lights work for several years. I thought about getting LED lights that would last much longer, but I've seen some unfavorable reviews about the color and intensity of the light. My next tree will be LED, I'm sure. Overall I am happy with this tree. It's the 8.5'H x 60"W blue albany spruce. I bent some of the lower branches up a bit so it would fit in a smaller space, so it is probably closer to 54"W. I found 8.5'H is good for my almost 10' ceilings. By the way, I like to put an angel on top of my tree and most artificial trees can't support the weight of it. I found a tree topper extension kit from balsamhill.com for $20 that worked well. I was able to put my angel exactly where I wanted it. Balsam Hill had quick shipping as well, and I got my extension kit the same day I got my tree.

Wow -- I want to thank everyone who recommended Thymes' Frazier Fir diffuser. This is our first year with an artificial tree and I really missed the smell. Knowing GW, I did a search and found this perfect thread (!); going to the Thymes' website I found a local (I mean a seven minute drive, door to door) charming shop I'd never seen before. It was incredible! And for whatever reason, they sold it to me for $30 (it should've been $60); I protested but they said "no, that's the price." So I bought a few other bibelots to ease my conscience (and it wasn't hard because it was one of those incredible shops where you want to just move in!). Right down the street from this shop a man was offering hay wagon rides, so my four and two year-olds, husband and I all hopped on and had an incredible ride around this sweet and historic downtown. Then we found an outdoor skating rink, so we rented some skates and pulled each other around. On the walk back to our car a man was handing out homemade candy canes from his candy shop. My four year-old loves candy canes! And all of these wonderful things happened to us today because the generous people here on GW shared Thymes Frazier Fir diffuser. So now I have this gorgeous smell, know about this wonderful local shop, and had a wonderful, serendipitous Saturday. Thank you!

Alisande, Another little thing about Ebay to consider. If you put your bid in early, it gives other bidders a chance to up yours. The longer your bid is in, the more opportunity there is to have someone outbid you. If you look at bidding history you can see some inexperienced bidders actually end up bidding several times over the course of the auction to keep their bid winning. All this means is that they end up bidding against themselves. That is what makes "sniping" so popular. If you put your highest bid in at the last few seconds it doesn't give anyone else a chance to outbid you. Either you win it, or you don't. There's a great service that does this for you automatically so you don't have to be sitting at the computer refreshing every few seconds waiting to put a last second bid in. It's called esnipe (link below) Also, you may just have to concede that these items will never go for as little as you hope. You may just have to revise your expectations as to what these rings are truly worth. Have you researched them using the completed auction search to get an idea of what they average on sale? I also have to agree with Mona that many retailers are buying on Ebay to resell in their private retail stores. They can find things on Ebay they aren't likely to find wholesale at some mass merchant. By the way, the rings are beautiful. I can understand your passion about them. Here is a link that might be useful: esnipe!