I personally think hanging are "sexier," although I have read that the paddle strops are slightly easier to learn on. Additionally, you could get a 4-sided paddle with 3 sides pasted and leave 1 side unpasted. That would probably be your most economic/practical bet. However, I have never used a paddle strop, so I can't speak from experience there.

As for the differences between all the ones on Classic, somebody who is more experienced than I will have to chime in here -- I don't really know anything about them. I suspect the main differences are the dimensions, type of leather used, and the hardware. I further suspect that any of them would be perfectly suitable for a beginner. But, like I said, I don't know any of that for sure.