Thanks for the replys. Tony made the suggestion a while back to me to start with one of his 4 sided paddle strops when I do move away from the shavette, and from what everyone else is saying I guess that's what I'll do, especially after reading the thread http://straightrazorpalace.com2/showthread.php?t=5233 from LJStorm.
Seeing a strop on eBay for $20 (where ever it was made ) seemed like a good deal but as vladsch said, you get what you pay for and sometimes not even that.