Gmail help needed!

I have 3825 email messages totalling 993MB in my Gmail account. Since the Gmail team said, "why delete email when you have 1GB?" - I did just that, and never deleted my email. Downloading old emails (from the beginning) stops at 300+ emails, for some reason. Anyone have any idea how to proceed? Can I pay Google to get 2GB? The search is fast and invaluable.