[walkingintheair]

I thought it would be nice to make a thread where we could get to know each other better.

My name is Meghan, I live in south Florida (although the rest of my family is from Wisconsin).  I discovered Wee Forest Folk when I was around 12 or 13 years old at Bill Montague's "Mouse Trap" shop in Concord, MA while visiting my brother in Lexington, MA.  I'm in my late 30's now and aside from Wee Forest Folk I enjoy gardening, reading (really enjoying the Bronte sisters and Elizabeth Gaskell right now) and just took up learning embroidery. I wish I knew carpentry. because then I could make my own shelving for wee forest folk, as well as picture frames and garden fencing.

[Jdroman26]

Hi Meghan,

My name is Julie. I live in the Detroit, MI area. I started collecting WFF when I was 19 years old.  I?m now 52 and except for a period of around 8 years, I have always collected the mice. I remember walking past a Hallmark store and spotting them and I was hooked.  I create miniature settings for my mice.  I generally use kits to achieve this.  My dad is an avid woodworker so I am trying to learn from him how to use the band saw, etc so that I too could create some other and more intricate displays for the mice.

[walkingintheair]

Hi Julie Nice to meet you.  Do you remember what store it was you first saw them at?

[Jdroman26]

So hopefully this goes through. I?m
Having some operator issues I think. lol.  In any case, I can?t remember the name of the Hallmark store I first saw the WFF at. After that though, I found a local store called Plain and Fancy who became my go to for the mice.   

[walkingintheair]

It went through.  I didn't know Hallmark ever sold wee forest folk so I had thought you meant you had seen them at a store nearby a Hallmark. 

[Jdroman26]

Oh no. I?m sorry.  I now purchase them online from Fairytales, eBay, or the WFF trading post.  Where do you primarily purchase yours from?

[walkingintheair]

I purchase them from the club market place and trading post as well when I can.  I buy from the factory when they do their specials, and fairy tales for the mice only available through retailers.  Ebay only if I can't get it from the market place or trading post.

[Jdroman26]

How big is your collection and how do you display yours?

[walkingintheair]

I never really counted before and had to go look.  I'd estimate about 150 mice and 20 or so tiny accessory pieces. I usually display just a couple on little tables throughout the house, a few in the curio cabinet and some in the china cabinet. How about you?

[Jdroman26]

That?s good size collection.  I have around 550 pieces. I?ve been collecting for over 30 years; that?s my excuse.  lol.   I have mine in curio cabinets although right now they are stored in their boxes because I recently moved. 

[walkingintheair]

That's quite a collection!  I am getting overwhelmed with storing my mice with the amount I have. I keep them on a soft cloth in a dresser.  I have a drawer for each season, and a drawer for miscellaneous mice.  I also keep the boxes for each mice and they take up a lot of room.

[Geoff]

Wow! It's so good to see someone(s) using the Forum! Welcome!
I'm the same Geoff that takes care of the Club website, including the Master List and all the other Club services. I've gotten out of the habit of regularly logging into the Forum because everyone seemed to prefer Facebook (for some reason unknown to me), but maybe now I'll have to visit the Forum regularly. You can use the Forum to make suggestions about Club services, or even just questions about the services in general. I refuse to spend any more time than necessary on FB, but I'd be willing to spend more time in the Forum if enough people are interested.
I first saw WFF mice at the Mole Hole in Solvang in 1996, but didn't buy any until the following year when I realized the Factory actually retired mice each year--so much for procrastination! Later in 1997 I attended a class in Boston, and while I was out, I thought I'd visit "that place where the make the mice". The Factory was very gracious about welcoming a last-minute visitor. It was a life-altering visit, to say the least.
I started accumulating pricing data once I realized there was a primitive secondary market (this was pre-eBay) that eventually evolved into the Nu Insight WFF pricing service. Back then I was simply trying to figure out if a mouse was selling for a good price. Now the price database has data as early as 1985 and gets fresh data every month. While Nu Insight is not an official part of the Club, the Club has an agreement to run a subscriber pool that allows Club members to subscribe at a significant discount. The pool runs from March 3rd of each year to March 3rd of the next.
Don't remember exactly when I took custody of the Master List; NBR probably remembers. Back in the day there were 2 or 3 of us tracking the mice, but eventually I was the only one left. The Master List started as a web version of an Excel spreadsheet, but the spreadsheet format grew too--let's face it--ugly and unwieldy, so I learned how to weave web pages with a real database, and that's what you see today. It's seen gradual refinements over the years, the most recent being a mobile-friendly format that adjust to screen size so it can accommodate phones, tablets, and desktops.
Most of the other services are offshoots (hacks) of the Master List. My next project is a Master List of WFF-related paraphernalia that have no official item number, hence they are not easily integrated into the regular Master List (e.g., prints, sketches, cards). That list will depend on contributions from the WFF community. I'm hoping to make that available later this year.
Keep up the conversations! This Forum is easier to use than FB, despite what FB users say, so I'm inclined to impart more information here than on FB. Let the FB users come here if they want to find out what's happening!

[walkingintheair]

Nice to meet you Geoff!  Up until now, I thought perhaps you were just a tech savvy person who was friends of Nancy and did the website work for her.  Now I know you are a collector as well. I've been posting links to some of my topics on here on Facebook in hopes that others will come.  I'm not too fond of Facebook.  I visited the factory to pick up a mouse last year while passing through the area, and I was surprised because I expected I'd be entering a gift shop like place, but instead it seemed more like somebody's home. You have put a lot of work into the master list and this website, thank you.

[Geoff]

I'm a collector that knows some tech stuff, and I've learned a LOT more tech stuff while working on the Master List!
I, too, and not too fond of FB; in fact, I consider FB to be a serious security risk. It is  beyond me why people would willingly post personal information in a public forum that might be exploited by bad guys. By contrast, there's no need to worry about posting here on the Forum, so there's no security risk.
When I try to get people to move their discussions from FB to here, I get the excuse, "Oh, it's too hard to learn to use the Forum". Personally, I think you have to be pretty obtuse to be unable to use this Forum, but what can I do?
Maybe if you spread the word about how easy it is to post here, others might listen to you.
And I am definitely more willing to post information here than on FB!

[walkingintheair]

The forum is easy to use, I will keep trying to encourage collectors to come here.  I've not been very successful so far though.   I think they just don't want to bother with logging into another place on the internet when everybody is on Facebook, no matter what downsides there are to it.
What I haven't been liking about Facebook is if I do something like research something health related, then I go on Facebook to connect with other collectors and I have to scroll through ads that have to do with what I was researching.  Can you explain why this happens?  Do Facebook and google work together somehow?