Great thread!
I just dabbled in an oil painting class this past semester at a nearby community college -- I got "beginner" type oils, and while the paint was acceptable, the tubes were poor quality. When I gently tightened the plastic tops back on, they would crack fully. The brand is Grumbacher "Academy", so I'd stay away from that brand myself
I got a mix of brush sizes/types in the medium price range, mostly white "bristle" made from hog hair I believe. These also might be called "China bristle"... I was told by my brother-in-law who has a Master's in Painting from Yale (wow!) that if you get the China bristle brushes, you should beat them against a chair leg to soften them up and get some of the extra loose bristles out. I felt kind of ruthless doing this but I think it helped. I still got bristles in my paintings though which drove me insane.
So, at Michael's craft store, I also sprang for 2 very nice sable/synthetic blend brushes by Sapphire/Robert Simmons, with cobalt blue handles. They are VERY nice and I really notice the difference in "paint handling" and no hairs falling into the paintings
They were the top quality I saw at Michael's, which didn't have any pure sable brushes.
The word I've been told is that you should get the best you can afford. And that acrylic brushes can be used with oils, but not the reverse: acrylic paints are harsher on brushes, so it's recommended for longest brush life that you use synthetics, not natural brushes, when acrylic painting.
Here is what I had to buy as a beginner oil painter:
Oil paints
Titanium or zinc white
Cadmium red (hue)
Alizarin crimson
Ultramarine blue
Prussian blue
Cobalt blue (hue)
Ultramarine violet
Sap green
Lemon yellow
Cadmium yellow medium (hue)
Cadmium orange (hue)
Yellow ochre
Raw umber
Burnt sienna
Ivory, mars or lamp black
Assorted palette knives
Pallette (to mix your paint on)
Stretched canvas or masonite board 16"x20" (or larger)
Turpenoid (not turpentine)
Brushes: #2, 4, 8 bristle, #4 fan, #2 liner brush
Paint rags
Painting smock (optional, but keeps you clean)
*I also recommend an easel, either a table-top or a big standing one. My painting class had the full-size ones, but at home, I used a wood table-top one (Richeson brand), that I could clamp the canvas or board down onto. The cheapo metal easels with no clamps are a waste of money IMHO, because as you paint, the canvas flops around. Not very easy to work with!
"Hue" in a paint name means it's an artificial copy of the natural color. The color is not as deep or luminous, but it's a lot cheaper
Like real cobalt blue is incredibly beautiful but very pricey; also a little bit o' info I didn't know, from my wise BIL, is that colors with "lake" in the name are made from coral and make gorgeous skin tones.
For materials, you can often save by buying online. A couple of stores that came highly recommended to me are:
Recommended by my art teacher, who said the company-brand oils are top-notch:
http://utrecht.com/
Recommended by a coworker with lots of experience in different mediums:
http://www.dickblick.com/
I got the Blick Studio catalog and it's really cool to look through, all 384 pages! You can get a free copy by going to the website. It's nice that they have pages inside the catalog, like "how to choose a brush" and what the differences are between them all. For a newbie like me, it's great...
GOOD LUCK! and have fun
I'm starting an acrylic class this Thursday night at an area high school
(Only $55 for 16 hours of instruction!) I am going to go get my acrylics tonight... looking forward to getting back into goop and canvases
I can draw, I love graphite pencils...just love them!!! 
