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Morbius, depends what style of music you are planing to spin ... i'll just assume it's trance/techno/house and that you won't be doing any turntablism (since they require two different mixer styles).
If money isn't an issue, get the Pioneer DJM-600 mixer ... extremely nice piece of electronics, very smooth to operate, and quite reliable (from what I've heard). I had a chance to play with it a few times and it is plain amazing. The bad: it will set you back over a grand (about $1200), and it doesn't have kill switches. It includes a 8 second sampler and a beatcounter (which you should NOT use ...) so you'd be set for a while. If you don't wish to spend that much money, another good mixer for about $300 would be the Vestax PMC-170A. Well-balanced mixer, 3 channel, no bells and whistles like the Pioneer, but it does its job really good. Vestax has a range of scratch-mixers so their faders are very high quality and very robust, so they shouldn't break that easily. I've also heard some rather positive comments about Rane mixer but never had the chance of actually using one myself, so I can't really tell you about it. If you want to go a little cheaper still, take a look at the Numark mixers, the 2002x is a nice mixer you can get for under $200 ...
Basically, the main difference between mixers is the fader quality (sound and durability) and the ruggedness ... also, some advanced features come into play at higher prices (ie. samplers, bpm counters, effect processors) but if you're just starting out it only distracts from the actual mixing.
Gemini decks, especially the low and mid-price range have very poor torque. It is very easy to physically stop the platter when you hold the record still (which should not happen) and they also take a long time to get up to full speed. The pitch is not as precise as on the Technics (especially the new M3D pitch slider) and they also tend to lose their pitch slightly - the deck would randomly speed up or slow down slightly ... you wouldn't notice it when listening to music, but it can be very annoying when beatmatching. Also, Tehcnics are built like a tank ... I think they weigh over 30 pounds. That helps absorb vibrations caused by the speakers and also by you messing around with the record. And also Technics decks have a magnetic drive, while the other decks (I'm not sure about the new Vestax and Denon ones) have mechanical drive - so when you put pressure on the platter, you put strain on the motor, which can shorten its life. And another thing, if you ever play out, you'll probably play on 1200s, so it is good to be familiar with the feel of the deck you'll use at a party.
hope this helps
peace
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I KNOW TECHINICS SL1200'S ARE THE BEST, BUT THEY ARE ALSO THE MOST EXPENSIVE ($500.00 PER DECK) I FOUND A PAIR OF GEMINI XL-500II DIRECT DRIVE TABLES, A PMX-60 2 CHANNEL MIXER,2 CARTRIDGES AND 2 SLIPMATS FOR $389.00! CAN ANY OF YOU TRANCE ADDICTS WITH EXPERIENCE TELL ME IF THIS IS A GOOD DEAL???? ALSO, IF I HAVE A TWO CHANNEL MIXER CAN I CONNECT A CD PLAYER TO IT ALONG WITH MY TABLES (MIXER HAS 3 LINE INPUTS) 
THX IN ADVANCE
) about buying some decks and such... money isn't really a problem for me (for now at least!) so I'd go for the Technics 1200's. But what I'm wondering about is what sort of mixer is good and about how much it'd cost? And what sort of different features would I get in a cheap one vs a more expensive one?
(or maybe I am just to lazy) Back to the topic, I thought the function of a hamster switch was to reverse the action of the crossfader? Also what is the difference in phono and line inputs? The only difference I see between the two numarks you mentioned is one of them has a kill switch, is this an advantage?
