Beginner Drum Kits

I asked a friend of mine who's a drummer. He said he just picked up a used Ludwig Accent Combo 5-piece w/ Zildjian cymbals, for his son, for around that price. You could probably play with a new set at your local music shop to see if you like the quality first.

I'm totally out of my depth here, but I always felt the best part about drums was you could buy one piece at a time. Buy one awesome cymbal, at a time, instead of a whole set of mediocre cymbals, and (1) you won't have to replace them when your skills improve and (2) they'll have better resale value should you ever decide to stop playing (but we hope that doesn't happen!). So if I were you I would get the best mapex or whatever brand of kick drum you can afford, the best snare or two (lots of my drummer friends have multiple snares) the best hi-hat, etc. one at a time until you have an awesome kit.

I like to think this also yields a better player, because you are forced to focus on playing on a smaller amount of pieces. The best drummers I know can make a simple 3-pc Jazz kit sound like a 7-pc kit by hitting the snare and hi-hat various ways. It's kind of amazing.

I'm totally out of my depth here, but I always felt the best part about drums was you could buy one piece at a time.

THIS! I am no drummer, but I own some random and uncommon kit pieces (as well as my own nice cymbals) and lots of high quality stands for recording purposes. If I needed a kit I would buy it a bit at a time.

I like to think this also yields a better player, because you are forced to focus on playing on a smaller amount of pieces. The best drummers I know can make a simple 3-pc Jazz kit sound like a 7-pc kit by hitting the snare and hi-hat various ways. It's kind of amazing.

also THIS!

Right on, brutha! :P