I've worked on cars for a long time and have a five foot tall chest full of auto tools (and electrical, hobby, woodworking, and home tools). By auto tools I mean wrenches, sockets, pliers , screwdrivers, micrometer, etc ).

So I just needed the bike-specific tools. I bought those as I needed them. A few of the bike-specific tools are universal: everyone needs a cable cutter, whether their bike is from 1960 or 2013. But many are geared for a particular era of bike: a freewheel remover is useless if you have a modern bike, the external bottom bracket tools are useless for a traditional BB.

Therefore, I would: (1) buy the general tools in sets at Sears (Craftsman is quality stuff) or Home Depot (some of the Husky store brand tools are good) or wherever ( in general, the forces needed for bikes are so low that even fairly cheap auto tools will do fine.) (2) buy the bike-specific tools as you need them for a particular project. (3) Pick up used tools whenever you see them even if you don't need them right away (used tools are cheap).

You don't need that many tools to work on bikes. Modern bikes need even fewer than older bikes. More involved stuff like chasing bottom bracket threads, aligning dropouts, facing frames - use the co-op tools.

Park tools are good enough but compared to high quality auto tools, they are mediocre. Not a knock on Park - for bikes , tools simply don't need to be as strong as when you're torquing a car axle nut to 150 ft-lb. Therefore, the Park tools are a somewhat expensive way to go except for bike specific tools.