Buying a kit is usually cheaper than buying all the tools in that kit individually but you most likely don't need all the tools in the kit and may never need them. I'm in the "buy when you need" camp myself and have put together a pretty good tool kit over the past few years. Most of the items were bought either at Performance Bike Store when they had a really good sale or I'll add a tool now and then to an online order as I'm already paying the S+H.