Reddit mentions of Elenco 100 Capacitor Component Kit - CAPK-100

You are going to want to balance tools and parts.

TOOLS (must haves)

• Multimeters (At least two, I suggest starting with one cheapo ($5-$10) and one in the $30-$50 range)
  
• Variable regulated power supply with current limiting (Skip the cheap/dangerous chinese crap and get a used HP/Agilent/Keysight one off ebay like this or this.)
  
• Breadboards (several)
  
• Jumper wires
  
• Wire strippers and cutters
  
• Decent soldering Iron ($50-$100) (DO NOT CHEAP OUT ON THIS)
  
• Desoldering pump and/or wick (The ctrl-z of the soldering world)
  
• Heat shrink tubing for sealing connections (Especially if you are going to be doing outdoor stuff)
  
• Microcontrollers (I suggest starting with an Arudino Uno since it has the largest amount of online support material, you could get an Uno kit, any of them will be fine)
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  TOOLS (eventually)
  
• Logic Analyzer (Let's you see the logic signals in your circuit which is super helpful for debugging, I have a bitscope micro which is decent, but the software kinda sucks and is more than just a logic analyzer)
  
• A function generator (variable voltage and frequency for sine, square and triangle waves) (Again I suggest used off ebay, something like this.)
  
• Oscilloscope (a really amazing tool for actally seeing what is going on in your circuit)
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  PARTS (vaguely in order of usefullness)
  
• Elenco Resistor Kit
  
• Elenco Capacitor Kit
  
• Elenco Transistor Kit
  
• Elenco Diode Kit
  
• Elenco LED Kit
  (Of couse you don't have to get the Elenco kits, those are just the ones I use and really like)
  
• Voltage regulator ICs (Great for providing regulated power to things that need more than what your arduino can provide)
  
• Trimmer Potentiometer Kit (really useful to have around for many projects)
  
• Old electronic equipment to scavenge parts out of (Many of my parts have come from old equipment or broken ATX computer power supplies. Tearing stuff apart is both fun and yields great parts.)
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  I think that's all for now...

http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-100-Capacitor-Component-Kit/dp/B004YHZDW0/ref=pd_sim_60_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51eBE5ZzncL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0SVCS5J35KJBVF17S4DS

http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-365-Piece-Resistor-Kit/dp/B0002HBQHW/ref=pd_sim_t_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=14BEKDGCZYR4BRZH99QE http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-100-Capacitor-Component-Kit/dp/B004YHZDW0/ref=pd_sim_t_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZY4TZ8KX03R67FCGF50 do these look like a good deal?

I mean, define compatible. I'm confused about what you're looking for exactly. If it is rated for the power specifications you need and terminates in a way that you know how to work with there's not too much more you need to worry about. If you post your circuit we can maybe give you some better guidance, but I think as long as you get reasonably-rated through hole versions of your parts you are going to be fine.

Do you have a base stock of parts like caps and resistors? If not, this Electronic Suprise Box is a cheap shotgun method of getting a base stock going, plus you usually get a decent selection of LEDs, switches, or whatever else they sweep off the table in to your box. If you don't want to dedicate a ton of time to sorting them, you can order kits like this and this.

If you're wanting to better understand how this stuff all works, then check out Getting Started In Electronics by Forrest Mims. You won't regret it.

Most importantly--and I can't stress this enough--RadioShack should be your last resort. You'll pay 10x as much for terrible components. Things that cost pennies on Mouser or DigiKey will be dollars there.

Elenco makes parts kits that you can buy on amazon. I'm aware of the diode, capacitor, and transistor kits.

https://www.amazon.com/Elenco-100-Capacitor-Component-Kit/dp/B004YHZDW0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465659726&sr=8-1&keywords=elenco+capacitor+kit

That said, you can always make your own and it will be a better value for money.

Get on Digikey and look for standard capacitor values in various orders of magnitude and buy 10-20 of them. To start out, get 100, 330, 470 pF as ceramic and 1, 10, 100, 330, 470 nF in film caps. They're cheap, even in low quantities.

For transistors, get 50 2n3904 transistors and 50 2n3906. Works out to about $8 each. 50 of each should be way more than enough for a long time. For diodes, you can get 50 1n4148s for less than $3. For rectifier diodes, 1N4007s are less than $5 for 50.

Especially for passives, when you buy in bulk, the price per unit falls sharply.