the 1200s are tanks.. your best buy.. cuz if you dont wnat them anymore, theyre the easiest things to sell (i put my extra set of 1200s on ebay and they were gone in less than two hours).. if u get dj in a box, and u dont want them anymore, ur gonna have to give them away. right now i'm cutting on technics 1200s mk5's.. i had my old ones for 8 years with no problem.. just replaced them cuz i had extra money lying around.. i'm gonna get the technics cd table in early may.. it's $1200 bucks for one tho.. but i need one for sampling off of cds, and so that i can cut people's voices without having to get vinyl cut, might as well get the best... oh.. and i do have final scratch which allows u to manipulate mp3's with a turntable and a laptop, but it is not that good for skratching purposes, just mixing.
sharp cut in point is good for cutting.. basically the fader can cut the sound on and off rather abruptly as opposed to the slow gradual blending fader.. however, most mixers above 200 bucks have a knob where u can adjust this feature.
however.. your record hand is the most important feature to develop.. anyone can click like a wild monkey.. but record hand movement is where all the funky cuts show themselves.. wooo