Great info Farmer! I was a little worried about you, I read in another thread you "bought the farm." I guess all is okay.
Notlong,
I always try to give advise on how best to save money when buying FFing and fly tying stuff, especially with beginners. Dry fly hackle is one place where that is difficult to do. Quality hackle makes quality dry flies. You are smart to save your money up and buy a decent neck or saddle.
A Whiting bronze grade 1/2 neck or saddle cape is a great investment. I would buy a neck if I was looking to tie a lot of smaller flies (20's or smaller). A saddle is great if the flies were a little larger. If you are like most tyers, the 14's, 16's and 18's will be used up first. In that case, you can fill in with the Whiting 100's of that size.
Another piece of advise, if you are going to pay good money for a neck or saddle, you should select hackle in person (not on-line).
Whiting or sometimes labeled Whiting/Hoffman is the primo hackle in the business.
Metz hackle is okay, but priced close to Whiting. I would select Whiting first unless I got a really good deal on Metz
At the FFing show in Somerset, Collins hackle has a booth there and offers decent hackle at a decent price. It's worth a look too.