I also deal direct with Ray. I send a detailed email with pictures if possible. He then sends me a quote and I pay through PayPal. The only problem is no security as when purchased through Alibaba!
My strings are 33 pixels each. The reason is I wanted the extra pixels for a different project. While the flat tree looked good, this year I will do a 180 tree. The only way I would spend the money on a 360 tree is if it could be viewed all the way around. Last year's flat tree was 14ft tall...