Before I Begin Spending Money.

I would stick with ebay. I ordered once from collectors alliance and never again. Very overpriced. ebay has over priced items too but you can get good deals and even from time to time underpriced items. And like you said you can control what you get. Pretty much anything you find on the CA website you can find elsewhere for less money especially graded coins

Other than the 1999 and probably 2000 most of those State Quarters graded in those grades can be found for around 30 dollars or less. Or you could just buy the uncirculated mint sets and break them out

Depending on your age, experiences with ebay, knowledge of coins, I'd stay far, far away from ebay. Way to many things go wrong there for those not aware of what is what. And even then, just to many problems.
I have no idea of what a Collectors Alliance, Inc. is or how they operate.
I would suggest you look into coin shows as a starter.
Visit as many coin stores as you can and just look, don't buy until you know what your doing.
Do searches on the internet for coin dealers and, again, don't rush into buying, but look, learn and be carefull.
If you stick around here and keep asking questions, you may well find places to go for coins that are much cheaper and safer than ebay. Not sure how well it would work but you could also try the Search tab at the top for coin dealers.

Most of the big reputable coin dealers have ebay stores as well. Theres some bad dealers on there but a lot of good ones as well. Could always check out the ebay threads for good dealers on there. Just remember if it seems to good to be true it is

Just other tidbit about ebay, the inventory of the big shops on there is not always the same on ebay as it is their normal website. LC Coins for example has different things listed on the two sites while others may have the same things listed just waiting to see where itll sell first. In such cases their real website can sometimes be cheaper than the ebay listing without the added fees

Where to buy your coins is one of those timeless questions that everyone faces irregardless of your experience level. The first thing you must realize that there really is no safe place for a novice to buy coins at a fair price. THere are good and bad in ebay, coin shops and coin shops. All sellers have to seek a profit and will prey on the unknowledgable novice. Your best method of prevention is to arm yourself with knowledge. Buy a Red Book and read up on the series you want to collect. Look as thouands of coins online and in person before you spend any money. Knowledge is the best way to defend yourself from those looking to take advantage of your inexperience. There are swindlers at all points of sale ..never forget this.

Oh ..sorry I thought you were investing in coins but now I see you just want a set of State Quarters for bragging rights. From the get go you must realized that it costs more to slab a State Quarter than the coin is actually worth so right off the bat, you will over pay for a slabbed set. Realizing this ..buy at will where ever you find the cheapest with the number on the paper in the plastic you want. These won't appreciate much at all ..so all that you are paying for is the "my sets better than your set" aura of superiority.

Andrew289;

Mint state states quarters do not exist in MS-70 though there are a few in MS-69. If you ever looked at an MS-69 you'd see a few things. First off you'd see it was far nicer than any states coin you've ever seen before. Second you'd quickly come to find that there are not a lot of MS-68's either. Several of the things you said simply are not true. Most importantly though is the implication that the coins have no value and nowhere is this more wrong than at the MS-66 and 67 level. These coins in slabs often sell for only a few dollars which is a fraction of the grading charge. They are "mistakes", people believed they would grade higher but they didn't so they sell on the market. Since demand is weak they are less than grading fees yet will generally at least be choice for their grade. The highest grade states coin bring a lot of money but compared to the population they could be the biggest bargains out there.

People have the idea that modern coins are cheap because they are common but nothing could be further from the truth. There are hundreds of US a world coins that I've sought for 36 years now and have been unable to find. Some of these coins have gone straight through the roof in the last few years because others are now seeking them as well. Sure, something like a "common" 1950-E E German 10p now lists for $1300 instead of 50c but there are still a lot of 50c coins out there that can't be found. In my opinion some of the best bargains are US coins and the pricing structure will have to change when people start collecting these someday.

I agree with you that investing in coins is a losing proposition. I believe this appliers to all coins. Collectors almost always do better because they learn more and have fun doing it. It's knowledge that is more likely to lead to profit and enjoyment. I also agree that someone should know what he's doing before spending a lot of money on something he doesn't understand.