I guess I am a wannabe dude... Not knowing ahead of time what I would need over time and picturing myself spending hundreds of dollars in gas to buy 1's and 2's at radio shack, I just got the 73 Values Set. I'll probably never use 90% of them. But... My little one liked sorting out the colors and categorizing them into a plastic drawer case. Also, I've been playing around with serializing and paralleling them to get exact values calculated by the equations. It appeals to my anal-retentive side.
The key word for you would be "decade box". You can find them starting around $100. You can "dial in" the resistance you want without stacking in series and parallel.
here is one on Amazon...
http://www.amazon.co...x/dp/B00023RTZO
If you do this professionally, then there are higher end devices such as this...
http://www.amazon.co...x/dp/B001M1WIM4
(Note: I used to work for IET Labs. They've been making these forever...)