Best starter?

You will also want to keep an eye on the "Your Latest Purchase" thread in the Bar Sport section. We tend to post things in that thread when we come across particularly good deals.. mostly ebay, but there's a good vendor "list" in that discussion. It's a cool thread, a little off topic from time to time (usually because of me) but one of the most useful places for finding good sources.

Ebay from China is your friend. There's a couple of decent outlets stateside and in Canada.. but you are unlikely to be able to beat buying a "bulk pack" of anything direct from the wholesaler in China. Takes a while to arrive (as long as a month for low-priority shipping), so it's best to buy "bulk" and shelf stuff. A good example is a resistor kit with 50 of each E96 value, or things like that.