tarponman,
Do yourself a favor and go out to music stores and find what feels good and sounds good before making your final decission. It is very tempting to jump on bargains in ads or sale items in music catalogs. Are you a Bluegrass picker? Do you need to have the resonator for expanded sounds?
I think it is a good move to reward yourself with a better banjo, thats incentive to go forward and advance yourself both playing and feeling better about playng. Keep up the good hunt.
Mudjack