Pre-newbie: what to start with...

[Inkwolf]

Hi,

I'm on a Mac, and I have an old copy of Flash 4 I haven't ever really learned to use. Interested only in making cartoons, not games or interactive websites.
(And my Mac will still run stuff in Os 9, though I prefer not to.)

But I wonder if it's worth learning on such an old piece of software--have the newer versions made major improvements in ease of use, or anything?

Not having much cash, I've been looking on Ebay for newer versions, and what I see is really confusing. I'm aware of the price differences between academic and commercial versions, but I've seen 'full versions' of Flash 8 sell for $85 with hardly any bids....and copies of Flash 5 over a hundred and with no slow-down in the bidding apparent. Flash MX also seems to sell higher than Flash 8, which leads me to wonder: is there a particular version of Flash that's better than later ones? Is there something I'm unaware of that I should know before I blow the money I can't afford? (I'm a Corel Painter user, and I know there have been upgrades occasionally which were considered worse than the older version...IX is excellent, if you're wondering. )

Is there any REALLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE between the current version of Flash and Version 4?

Anyway, what would you do?