Going to buy my first polishing/rubbing compound.

Its not that hard, takes a while to master but once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy.

 

I would say buy the 12oz bottles of M105 and 205 and get the 16oz bottles of 203s by Menzerna and 85RD from Menzerna, that should give you enough combinations on enough paints to figure out what you like. Plus they are hot items right now so you could sell them if you ended up hating them all