From no parts to decent stockpile, best approach?

[RAPo]

Yep, very handy, good components. You can store some of the bins like little books saving bench space.
However, two nitpicks:
1) please choose a uniform packaging format
2) make the IC components pack available again,

I know this is an old post... but it is Pinned...

I've had some luck with an Amazon seller that goes by EEEEE (or eeeee.shop ).

They sell Jelly Bean (very common) electronic components (Resistors, LEDs, Diodes, Transistors, Capacitors, ETC.) but they kind of Add Value in that they sell their components in individually closable containers and they have nice color coordinated labels with some useful simple information.  This really helps in the organization of the component parts from the start and they are nice and compact (do not take up too much space).

So if your new and want to quickly get some common circuit components, check them out...

Example below of their component kits.

(Attachment Link)

[5U4GB]

They sell Jelly Bean (very common) electronic components (Resistors, LEDs, Diodes, Transistors, Capacitors, ETC.) but they kind of Add Value in that they sell their components in individually closable containers and they have nice color coordinated labels with some useful simple information.  This really helps in the organization of the component parts from the start and they are nice and compact (do not take up too much space).

I like EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee..... as well, it's just so convenient to have a few boxes of individually-labelled common parts you can get at quickly instead of having to go through drawers of stuff to find the 555 you were sure you had somewhere... maybe the next drawer down... or did I leave it on the workbench?  The other day I needed to terminate a Modbus (RS-485) chain and pulled a 120ohm out of the EEEEEE resistor folder without even stopping to think about where the pack of intended-for-the-purpose resistors might be at the moment.

[cosmicray]

You'll never be able to stock ALL parts.

Challenge accepted.

I did a mental exercise concerning E96 resistors (and only SMD). The magnitudes (beginning at 0R0 and proceeding up to ~9M76) contained 768 unique values per footprint size, without even getting into thick film, thin film or ppm variants. A shop with a full set of reels much have a significant investment in resistors alone. It starts out small, but then it just grows and grows.

[armandine2]

Re. de-soldering practice

... of course the haul of components from a pcb can be total, but unless you have noted the location and description of each component you may not be able to reassemble 

[Krotow]

People with a lot of unused storage space can keep a heap of donor boards from obsoleted analog and digital electronics as well. I believe this approach would work especially well for developing countries. Few my latest prototypes and repairs was partially or fully "sourced" from obsoleted routers, laptops, DVD readers, monitors etc. Price of these parts for me was effectively zero.

[CaptainBucko]

I started collecting components around 1992, and have also worked in the industry. Here is where I am at the moment:
- Primary Supplier : LCSC.com, which is the component sales arm of JLCPCB. Although located in China, they are highly reputable, and have datasheets behind everything they sell. You can buy high quality (ie: Panasonic) or no name, its your choice and you pay the difference. Shipping is about $8 USD (the slowest option) and is tracked and reliable. I would rather buy the cheapest option from LCSC than the most expensive from AliExpress. As a backup, I will buy from Mouser. In an emergency, I go to local suppliers.
- Catalog : Run a big Excel sheet with a link to all parts I stock, where I stock them, and their corresponding datasheet.
- Jellybeans : I keep a kit of Jellybean parts that I use in every project. Common value R's, C's, Op-Amps, FETs, BJTs, Diodes, LEDs, etc, etc. Unless I really need to vary from that, I don't. I have corresponding KiCad parts as well. You can adapt a lot of reference designs to use your jellybeans on hand if you understand the basics. This really cuts down on the stock pile.
- Scrap Parts : To keep costs down, I try and find useful scrap. Raiding the eWaste bin has been great, particularly if you find industrial electronics which tend to use high quality parts. I will occasionally raid consumer grade e-waste, but I focus on high value items like AV receivers, and stuff with linear transformers, heat sinks, etc. However, I really only use scrap parts for high value, one offs. I don't both with Jellybean scrap.