I can purchase one deck only right now. I have a normal deck of cards and mark wilsons book will be here today I hope.
I also ordered "the royal road to card magic" I heard it was a must have as well.
my question is If I can get one deck, should it be a stripper deck or something else?
I feel the stripper deck has more potential, and may be a bit simpler since I am still very new.
Any thoughts?
feel free to pm me if needed.

Craig,
One gaffed deck is enough to start off with, although I might consider the Invisible Deck rather than a Stripper, but both will give you some interesting possibilities. A Stripper Deck isn't really geared up for a beginner, and may not give you the same WoW factor initially that an Invisible Deck (actually Ultra-Mental) will.

BUT, you're actually FAR better off to keep your money in your pocket and start working your way through Royal Road, that's where the real card magic is!

The problem with buying a gaffed deck is that you will eventually have/or want to acquire more literature that deals with the particular deck in question to really exploit it. My advice is to use that money to buy another "normal" deck (perhaps in another color) and study RRTCM. You will receive all kinds of suggestions on what gaffed deck you should purchase and they will all be good. There is nothing wrong with the stripper, Svengali, or invisible decks, but they are limited in what you can accomplish with them.
Cardamagically,
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:)

My opinion is that the Stripper is the most versatile.
It can be used as a regular deck where other gaffed decks can not.

I got a stripper when I was a beginner and I thought it was beneficial for me. You learn a lot of intricate things with it about how to precisely handle the deck and so forth. And it can be used as a regular deck where the others cannot. The Svengali is also a good one to get but for the reasons I stated I would go with the stripper deck.

I'd say go with the stripper (but then again I would - I love it!) and make up an Invisible Deck yourself from an old standard deck. The stripper has it's own sleights but being a normal deck too, with a little thought, you can combine both worlds into something uniquely powerful.