Brian;
Not knowing where you are, for me, overseas, BA is a non-starter. Kirk Burwell of Hemingway Kits no longer supplies BA with his kits, because getting quality fasteners is tough. (read it in full on his web site)
You may wish to use metric; that's what I do. Most others here use UNC/UNF, but I think in the long run, metric will win out.
When I started out, I, too, purchased a set of ME taps and dies from Tracy tools, but I did have issues getting threads to fit, and slowly, the Tracy ones were replaced. Now, I use metric fine – and I get the taps and dies from a tooling supplier; maybe a lot of money for a tap set, but, you might as well purchase the best.
(The Tracy Tools set were a "life saver" – not putting them down in any way, but now I just purchase what I need)
Another JohnS. Blog: **LINK**