What keyword tool are you using?
 

I've always questioned Wordtracker's numbers.. they seem low.. although probably more accurate than googles old kw tool which had giant numbers?

Just now starting to get a little into SEO.. and would appreciate some sound advice about which numbers to trust and put faith in.

Much obliged.

The Old Google tool was replaced by Keyword Planner, still free, though they started off by allowing 10,000 KW exports, then went down to 3,000 and now you can export only 800 keywords.

As for accuracy, no idea, but it's not that you have that much of a choice