The beginner drum sets usually come with poor quality cymbals so make sure that you buy good quality cymbals. The drums even if they are of little inferior quality will do if you put good heads to them and tune them properly. These cymbals usually are very crappy for beginners and sound very harsh. So go, buy the best cymbals with the drums. Buy branded cymbals as they will always of very high quality and have a backing of sound solid professionals who their job.
There are beginners lines of drums from various companies and each of these companies also has amid level series and then from there you upgrade to professional series. For beginners there are series which are not expensive before you graduate to the next level. These are made of Philipine Mahogany wood and very inexpensive hardware. As long as you are looking to learn the drum playing then you need not worry about the wood or the finish. Go for the beginner level.
The next step up from beginner level series is the semi professional ones from various branded and well known companies in the music industry. The price range for these is $500-900 and is usually made up of birch, which is of course high end. Most professional players will usually upgrade to more high end drum sets from these semi professional ones once they are confident enough and will put more money for the most reputed and professional drum sets and even get a few custom made.
The to compnies are always the best to go to as you will not feel cheated once you see the product. They have drums made up of birch or maple wood which would need and have good lacquer finish. The price range can be again based on your choice of drums but surely under $1000.
The next best option to get professional drums for a relatively low price the online auction route.There is huge listing and usually you will get a good bargain from there. But make to do your due diligence while buying from the online market place.
The other tips usually that you need to look for are the warranty on the drums and the cymbals, what is the hardware associated with it and also make sure to check the freebies the companies give out. A lot many companies give out freebies with the drum sets. Some may be good but good companies like Yamaha will not have anything like freebies.
Again if you do your research properly you will find that there are several muci shops that are owned by music aficionados and have great equipemnts to buy from.
