Hi Curly, welcome to the forum. I'm from a similar history, played as a young teen into my mid twenties, then had to give up the acoustic kit due to marriage, apartments and family life. Was always in the blood and I missed it like nothing else, but I left in the 80's and knew nothing about electronic options. 25 years later I stumble upon my buddy's kid's kit in the basement at a party, sit in on a jam, and it's back in the blood and I had to get back in! I found out ekits were popular.. started off with a super cheapy Rockstar type kit that I modded out but out grew it quickly. I spent a year or more watching Alesis kits prices.. decided it was the DM10X or nothing (couldn't afford a flagship Roland or Hart etc).. I am SO glad I went for the 10X at the time, as it had the snare on it's own stand, larger tom sizes so it felt like a real drumset, and more cymbals. But the mylar gave me carpal tunnel within a few weeks, and was loud, so I meshed it out.
I would definitely wait it out, get a sale on the DM10X Mesh or one of the newer Alesis sets if the price comes down to your range.. you'll want mesh for sure, so whether better to wait for a sale on the already meshed kits or get a DM10X and do it yourself.. but I truly think if you settle for the DM8 you'll outgrow or regret it quickly. At least to me, half the joy I get out of my set is that it looks and feels so much closer to an acoustic set but is 1/8th the price of a similar setup in a Roland. I was lucky that the DM10X was priced at about 1500, but went on sale for 200 off, and then there came a 300 dollar rebate from Alesis, so at 998 it was a steal. That was still more than I'd planned to spend, but that 300 extra or so was worth every dollar.