You were lied to. The Axe, or any 300 size tail motor heli, is not an entry level bird. You can learn with it, and it seems to be more newbie friendly than other similar sized helis, so the learning will actually be more learning than crashing. And yes, once you can fly the Axe, anything larger will be easy, because the bigger they are, the easier they are to fly. I won't say you should ditch it and get a 450 size to learn, but I will say once you get past hover and forward flight, if you want to go further into 3d or scale, you should consider at least a 450.
Yeah, were can he get these motors for $6.00? The cheapest I can find them for is $9.99 at horizonhobby.com.