I would agree with all said above.
However, as a novice, presumably you are only going to get a few sheep, so buying in price of sheep won't be your only consideration.
It's a good idea to go to your local store sales as often as you can to get an idea of prices and also to see what breed of sheep you like and what breeds sell best. If you only have a few sheep you want some that you enjoy keeping not something that was just cheap. A lot of people start with Ryelands because they are relatively inexpensive , nice to look at and easy to handle. You'd maybe get a small hill ewe for a fair bit less but then find you couldn't catch them, or even keep them in.
It's horses for courses, and time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted.