I don't really have a "budget," per se. What I do have is 2 1/2 drumsets and a slew of snares banging around my house. I've been meaning to get rid of them and replace them with a good quality kit that can serve me for years to come.
Unfortunately, this means that first I must sell the old kits. My budget will be the amount I can get from the old drums - by my best guess, around $6-800.
I have a 7 piece Ludwig (I now believe it to be a Ludwig Rocker) with a full Gibraltar rack. This has been my "big" kit for nearly seven or eight years now. Everything on it is stock except for the kick drum hoops (replaced the splintered, broken wood hoops with composite), and the heads, of course, although I do still have what I believe to be the original kick batter head (silver dot and all).
I also have a 4 piece Japanese kit that's been pieced together- it was actually my first kit, bought for me when I was in 8th grade - about 13 years ago. The floor tom is a blue, sparkly Rogers tom (missing the bottom head, rim, and lugs), and the kick, hi tom, and snare are all orange sparkle and have no specific identifiable marks (thus I assume them to be Japanese). Despite the hundreds of dollars I invested in the other kit (new heads, the rack, clamps, etc), I still ended up using this kit more often simply because it was smaller and easier to transport. I tweaked and tweaked until this set sounded exactly the way I wanted.
The third, "half" set is the remnants of a Pearl Rhythm Traveler. I have the kick and three toms. I was in a band with a guy who had purchased this kit as a rehearsal kit, and he left them at my house (I played guitar in this band). He slowly started robbing it of parts (hardware, bass drum spurs, and eventually the snare turned into his side snare), and then he moved, leaving me with the 4 shells and mounts. I have the muffle heads, so I've toyed with the idea of triggering it, but still haven't done so.
My main snare, which I'm not selling, is a Tama StarClassic bronze 14x8. I also have a Ludwig piccolo snare (which is what I use with the Japanese kit) which I don't want to sell, and a steel Ludwig snare (which I plan to unload with the Rocker kit.
I'm a little hesitant to sell my hardware with either of these kits (aside from the rack), as I've spent a long time rounding up the stands and clamps that make me happy... So I guess what I'm REALLY looking for is either a good shell pack or a decent deal on a good kit. What I want, is a kit with a good, solid sound.
Anyway, back to the point... the guys selling the Custom Classic Pro have a store in Arkansas. My wife has family just a few hours from there... so I might have to go take a peek. I've not had the best relationship with Gretsch drums- don't care for how bouncy the toms tend to get in their mounts or how boomy 90% of their kick drums sound. BUT, if these drums can give a Gretsch look with a better feel, I'm interested.