So the HB Pathfinder book set bundle?

Hmm, look up some review sites and check the opinions of people about some splats.

I'm keen to buy the first tier, my problem is the shipping cost if I want to get the physical beginners box.
As I understand it the higher tiers are nice if you want to be the DM/GM but less useful for players. Pathfinder is quite rule-heavy and requires a lot of number crunching compared to D&D 5th. But that's just me parroting what I've read online, I haven't played anything since 3.5

edit: Pathfinder 2.0 is on the horizon I think, but that probably won't get bundled for a long while.

I got some basic stuff back then on HB Extra Life Bundle 2017 (T2 for ~$7) which included these:
Pathfinder Beginner Box (PDF), Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Player Character Folio, Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide, Pathfinder Society Pregenerated Characters, Pathfinder RPG Bonus Bestiary
Pathfinder GameMastery Guide, Pathfinder Advanced Player's Guide, Pathfinder Bestiary, Pathfinder Strategy Guide, Pathfinder Society Season 6: 23-Adventure Super-Pack, Pathfinder Ultimate Equipment

Missing some stuff but I like having the Bestiary (still haven't read much of them).
I don't know if you should wait it out or not though, but T1 seems pretty worth it.

I am familiar with all this material (I own a lot of this stuff already). Which tier you might want depends on what you're planning to do:

For a new player, the $8 tier might be the place to start. It contains more than enough to get started--I played for a long time with less. The 'Core Rulebook', 'Advanced Player Guide', and 'Advanced Class Guide' will be the most useful to you there. A lot of the other stuff is mainly of use if you're interested in GM-ing, running your own campaigns. For instance, the Bestiaries are cool to look at, but totally superfluous for a new player.

All of the 'ultimate' books, of which there are a bunch in the higher tiers, add more options and mechanics for specific parts of play. You don't NEED any of those, but some can be fun to have. I especially like the 'Ultimate Race Guide' since it adds a bunch more options for character creation. (Want to play as a full-blood orc, a half-angel, or a bird person?) How useful they'll be may depend a lot on what you're group is playing and how your GM is going to run things. For instance, 'Ultimate Intrigue' wouldn't be of much use at all in campaigns that didn't allow for spying and court drama, and none at all at a table where the GM didn't use those rules.

It's a pretty great deal at any tier. The $18 level probably seems the least worthwhile if you're a new player that doesn't plan to DM. On the other hand, it includes the core rule book for Starfinder, their new sci fi counterpart to Pathfinder. And Occult Adventures adds a slew of new magic classes based on a new psychic magic system.

One other note, this is Pathfinder 1st edition material. The 2nd edition is coming out very soon. I really like the first edition, but just something to be aware of.

By the way, I'm going to buy the whole bundle to patch some gaps in my PDF collection. But I already own everything in the first two tiers. If somebody wants those, they're yours for $6.