Hi Motty,
First thing, put your wallet away. There are a ton of stories (my own included) about how people just starting out spent a lot of money on worthless domain names before they knew what to look for. Spend a lot of time reading the threads here, learn all you can and after a month or so then buy one or two names to test the waters.
Good luck to you.
P.S. TheArbiter's advice about live chat is spot on. Take some time to watch the conversations before jumping in because we do have practical jokers and remember put your wallet away for a month or two first imho.