[BrendanB]

For some teams with smaller overall budgets you don't want to pre-buy too much. If you have some budget to spend, stick to the basics to get you through the first two weeks of development and some initial building. My optimal pre-buy would be some Vexpro Versa Frame stock in 1x1 & 2x1 so we can start building some of the base assemblies before the larger order is placed when we know our needs. Hex bearings, hex shaft, some gussets, 12awg wire, andersons, motor controllers etc. Unless you have a healthy robot budget you really don't want to go too far past the essentials or you'll start locking yourself to using items you wouldn't prefer using but you already ordered them so you might as well.

If the budget is tight I find its wiser to just focus on having some essential items for good prototyping like an intake using hex shafts, bearings, and some wheels. Having a gameplan for a driving chassis in the first few days is also valuable.

As long as you keep it flexible and within the reasons of your bank account you can't go wrong. I wouldn't recommend buying things like specific ratios of gearboxes.

The reality is you won't miss out on much unless you wait until late January to place your initial build orders for key items. The harder items to acquire are the game specific robot parts that are hard to predict like 8" pneumatic tires this year or banebots wheels in 2015, but some of the larger companies like Vexpro and Andymark do their best to react to the FRC market with alternatives or quick replacements.