I apologize if this is not in the proper forum section, but I wanted to share the good news with my fellow Frostgravers, who might not check the other forum sections.
After a couple of hours searching for affordable, bottle brush fir trees, my wife mentioned that she saw some at Michaels, and that Michaels has a 50% sale on Christmas items. I just purchased 42 trees of various sizes for $22. They are Lemax trees; dark green, bottle brush trees with a light snow frosting. I've seen the very same trees on ebay, but not nearly so cheap! The largest trees are too big, in my opinion, but there are only two of those per pack. Also, the white plastic bases slide off easily enough so that you get more wire stem to work with if integrating the tree to a different base.
The 50% sale will last through December 5th.
Search for "Lemax Assorted Pine Trees, Set of 21" on the Michaels website.