Hey BassInMyFace,
I would suggest, as pronstar suggested, that you start off buying some vinyl. If you look around, you should be able to find a nice schwaggy turntable for around $100 or so. Now I'm not talking about something that you could actually mix on, but rather something that you could hook up to your stereo and listen to your toons on. I say this because I feel that it is important to have a collection of music before you go out and buy any gear. Trust me...you'll be so sick of those 20 or so records that you have initially in no time at all. Once you have a decent collection (20-40) then you might want to consider buying some gear. Again, I believe that pronstar gave you the goods in terms of cost of equipment. The basics of DJing could probably be explained in an hour or two by somebody who knows how to do it. From there on, it's a matter of practice, practice, and more practice. I've been playing for about three years and I'm always learning new stuff. You can always get better if you want to.
One other thing that I would suggest is to focus your collection of music (at least initially) on one kind of music, and that way you will have tunes that will mix well together. You say that you love all things electronic, and while I can understand that, you don't want to go off and buy a bit of trance, a bit of house, a bit of DnB, and so on. If you do this, you may end up with tonnes of records, but relatively few that you can actually mix together well. Just my opinion.
IF you want to spend a bit more money, you can contact the email below:
info@studiohideaway.com
These guys offer courses in both DJing and production of electronic music. Just request some info and they'll send you a nice little word document with all of the stuff that you need to know. They are based out of TO.
Hope that helps a bit.
Shouts from the south...
