[Fradow]

What you get is basic knowledge about electronics using concrete circuits, and the parts to experiment yourself.

I don't think the main value proposition are the parts: if you know where to look, parts are very cheap. It's more about learning in an easy way.

You might say there are already tons of resources on the Net. The problem is that those resources don't come with parts, which might be problematic to choose when you are a beginner, and you might not know where to order.

[notum]

Exactly, the value is in the fact that it's bundled: instructions and everything you need to make the circuit, exactly the same components used in the manual.

As for getting assorted components to complement these bundles or other projects: SparkFun makes it easy for the US.

But being in the EU (and caring about ROHS and CE) I use these to fill the gap:

http://www.exp-tech.de/

https://www.tinkersoup.de/en/

http://www.watterott.com/

[falcolas]

I'll second this. In theory, I can get any part I need from DigiKey or similar, in practice, navigating their site and finding just the right part is very challenging. Sparkfun and Adafruit are better in this regard, but that comes with a higher cost and spotty availability.