Do components have an un-used lifespan?
Yes, they will degrade little by little; they will grow tin whiskers, maybe oxidize little by little because their casing will never be 100.00% sealed. Also the pin plating will oxidize, so you'll have to treat them before soldering. Also moisture can creep in, little by little... difficult to say if it would affect discretes like transistors a lot, but ICs will suffer. 

Oxidization plays a role in IC degradation if the passivation layer has defects, but the killer is metal whiskers between pins, pads and bond wires. It doesn't cause gradual degradation; basically the chip works fine until finally a whisker causes a short circuit between pads and the chip dies. 



Image: whiskers on a piece of zinc. Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zinc_whiskers.jpg