Scopes: Beware of entry level digital scopes, they can hide things such as overshoots, ringings, etc, and their effective real bandwidth at which they don't distort what they measure is often a lot smaller than the one advertised. If you can buy a good digital one, then go for it, but if all you can afford is a cheap one, then I would keep an old analog one next to it just in case.
Multimeters: the problems with cheap Chinese multimeters isn't much accuracy but rather consistency and reliability over time, and of course safety if you use them for critical measurements; some can even rival much more expensive ones during the occasional readings, but they may fail sooner due to contacts corrosion and other problems the good ones wouldn't suffer.
Solder wire: I have a life time stock of leaded wire and use it whenever I can. I tried lead free some time ago and didn't like it. However I'm old and solder mostly for hobby, so YMMV of course.
Solder iron: I've used for ages my two 1980s old solder guns (25W and 100W), then one day decided to go for a stylus and bought a Hakko 936 clone, and suddenly my solder joints couldn't even come close to the clean ones I did with 20-30 year earlier irons, The problem I later discovered was in the hand piece, namely reduced thermal mass and isolation between heater and tip. I was used for years to soldering guns in which the tip and the heater were the same thing and they also had much higher thermal mass, so touching a pad with the tip wouldn't dramatically lower its temperature ruining the joint. That became a problem with that cheap stylus that I couldn't solve by replacing first the heater and then the entire handpiece. So at the first chance I bought a used Weller TCP (now I have two) and all problems disappeared. If you can't find a used good quality solder iron, I've been positively impressed by the Pinecil by pine64.com (yeah, the same people behind the Pinephone) as it works incredibly well for its price.
Parts inventory: depending on how much time you spend on the hobby it may be from useless to invaluable to have parts at hands for repairs/tinkering/etc. If you need them, please stay away from some of the cheap ones sold online: they're mostly crap, especially electrolytic capacitors, transistors and chips. I didn't experience problems with low power resistors (aside thinner leads) and ceramic/poly capacitors assortments, but be careful with everything else, as the chances of ending up with fake relabeled parts is very high, in some cases 100% certain.
Some great parts can still be sourced at HAM conventions or shops selling surplus parts. Flea markets too can be a source of parts otherwise almost impossible to find or too expensive: I've found over the years bags of ex TV repair shop parts, big spools of enameled copper wire, panel voltmeters, semiconductors, ferrites, capacitive trimmers etc. Most even brand new.
Scopes: Beware of entry level digital scopes, they can hide things such as overshoots, ringings, etc, and their effective real bandwidth at which they don't distort what they measure is often a lot smaller than the one advertised. If you can buy a good digital one, then go for it, but if all you can afford is a cheap one, then I would keep an old analog one next to it just in case.
Multimeters: the problems with cheap Chinese multimeters isn't much accuracy but rather consistency and reliability over time, and of course safety if you use them for critical measurements; some can even rival much more expensive ones during the occasional readings, but they may fail sooner due to contacts corrosion and other problems the good ones wouldn't suffer.
Solder wire: I have a life time stock of leaded wire and use it whenever I can. I tried lead free some time ago and didn't like it. However I'm old and solder mostly for hobby, so YMMV of course.
Solder iron: I've used for ages my two 1980s old solder guns (25W and 100W), then one day decided to go for a stylus and bought a Hakko 936 clone, and suddenly my solder joints couldn't even come close to the clean ones I did with 20-30 year earlier irons, The problem I later discovered was in the hand piece, namely reduced thermal mass and isolation between heater and tip. I was used for years to soldering guns in which the tip and the heater were the same thing and they also had much higher thermal mass, so touching a pad with the tip wouldn't dramatically lower its temperature ruining the joint. That became a problem with that cheap stylus that I couldn't solve by replacing first the heater and then the entire handpiece. So at the first chance I bought a used Weller TCP (now I have two) and all problems disappeared. If you can't find a used good quality solder iron, I've been positively impressed by the Pinecil by pine64.com (yeah, the same people behind the Pinephone) as it works incredibly well for its price.
Parts inventory: depending on how much time you spend on the hobby it may be from useless to invaluable to have parts at hands for repairs/tinkering/etc. If you need them, please stay away from some of the cheap ones sold online: they're mostly crap, especially electrolytic capacitors, transistors and chips. I didn't experience problems with low power resistors (aside thinner leads) and ceramic/poly capacitors assortments, but be careful with everything else, as the chances of ending up with fake relabeled parts is very high, in some cases 100% certain. Some great parts can still be sourced at HAM conventions or shops selling surplus parts. Flea markets too can be a source of parts otherwise almost impossible to find or too expensive: I've found over the years bags of ex TV repair shop parts, big spools of enameled copper wire, panel voltmeters, semiconductors, ferrites, capacitive trimmers etc. Most even brand new.