Howie, from what you've described elsewhere about your objectives, I'd encourage you to consider a first cartridge in the $500-$900 price range. Below that, I don't think you'll get a good sense of what your vinyl playback can sound like in your system. And above that an accident will be a really painful experience. As others have pointed out already, the cartridge will wear out and have to be replaced at some point and you can always upgrade at that point (or before).
There is definitely a learning curve with vinyl playback, both as to set up and as to handling the LPs and the hardware. Cartridges are very robust critters, but most of us have destroyed a cantilever by accident somewhere along the line.
In the price range I've suggested there are a number of cartridges that will perform very well, the choice depending on what tonearm you end up getting and with due consideration to your listening priorities.
If budget becomes an issue, I would definitely opt for spending even less on a cartridge in order to spend more on the phono stage. A big mistake many people make is to spend too little on the phono stage. In my experience, the phono stage is critical to a good vinyl front end.
.