I am looking to buy a set of tenors, preferably quints or sextets, what brands do you suggest for a limited budget?

Even on a limited budget I would still go with a name brand like Yamaha, Dynasty, or Pearl.

You can still find some decent used drums if you look hard enough.

Agreed.I personally love Dynasty and Yamaha quads, but i rarely see them on ebay.

Every once in a while I see a nice Yamaha quint or something on ebay. Personally I wouldn't want a used marching tenor set, Most of the time they are used by a school, and I've seen what our tenors look like, after 3 years even. I know I would'nt want to pay a discounted price to get things like chipped shells, stains, ect. I would go new if you really wanted. I'm pretty sure a set of big block sex-tets (The only block, I've yet to see a small block six pack) is going to run you about 1k, no matter what brand, your best bet is probably a set of quints. Try and see if you can snag a deal for used corp drums, I would trust buying a corp drum over a school drum.

Corps drums are usually beat up more than high school drums.

I've seen and used a small block sextet set, for the record (Premier)

If you can, get them new. Quints are more widely used, so that's ideal. And honestly, transitioning from quints to sextets isn't that hard.

Not necessarily. It's true that drum corps is hard on equipment, but high schoolers can be, too.

Your typical high schooler doesn't have great control over playing zones, so they're probably going to inflict some bearing edge damage with stray mallets. They're also less likely to perform regular maintenance on the drums and more likely to inflict careless damage. High schools also hang on to drums for quite a bit longer than drum corps -- it's not uncommon for a school to keep drums for a decade or more, while corps typically turn over their lines every 1-3 years.

Back to the original question... Shop around and find a deal on a name-brand set of "big block" (10-12-13-14) quints or sextets. Assuming they're not too beat up, you can't go wrong with Pearl, Yamaha, or recent Dynasty drums. Mapex marching drums aren't widespread yet, but seem to have generally positive reviews. The new Premier Revolution Series drums look interesting, but I wouldn't touch their older tenors -- especially the free floaters -- unless you find a set dirt cheap.

Yea, I was starting to wonder that, what do they do to be so harsh on the drums, They all have a proper technique, and their drums don't look damaged. But just seeing whats come out of these drums we have now (3 years old), I would be afraid to buy from a highschool.

I can't see a corp drum being in worse condition, sure, its played on more, and its probably more settled in, but things like the wrap being stained, cracked, the coating on the snares being chewed, the tension bars (freefloater snares) eat up, I just can't see a corp doing that to their drums. I could be wrong of course.

The tension posts on my Phantom Regiment snare are chewed up like no tomorrow o.o