I am looking into buying drum cases or bags for around town and touring gigs. What are the best quality cases I can get for the money without over paying for cases? Pros/Cons of the cases and bags would be nice too.
What are you putting them in?
Truck? Wagon? Van? Bobtail? Sedan? How high is the lift gate?
If you're moving your kit in a car - lots of small, dedicated soft cases may be best - they'll fit better, and you can toss them in with no worries.
If you have a truck or van - one large multi-tom case from Craigs will be cheaper per drum-inch, be tougher, have better resale some day, be a much faster load (one trip) and have that "woah" factor when you roll into a gig. Much better for the personal branding.
Hardware - who the hell wants a giant golf bag with teeny skateboard wheels on one end and a handle on the other? Those bags suck. So you'll want a hard case for hardware so you can stack the rest of your cases on it. Of course, this only works in a truck bed or a van.
Cymbals? How many do you bring? A large multi-tom ATA case will have a cymbal sleeve... A Cymbal vault plastic roto case is nice - you can drop them 2 or three times before they break and chip the corners. Soft bags are nice - as long as you don't overload them.
Decisions decisions.
For me, I'm no longer in a truck. I'm in a Toyota Land Cruiser. So I have leather interior, seats that (mostly) fold down. I moved from three large ATA trap cases to a grip of Protection Racket bags for toms and Cymbals, and a low-boy ATA roller case to stack them all on. The loan hard case (SKB) is for my 98 Craviotto Snare. Everything else lives in Protection Racket bags.
What you move your rig in (read: your car, van, truck, bus, whatever) is the most important factor in deciding how to carry your drums and hardware.
-Ken