I prefer to keep all my purchases private, so I've never dealt with anyone online, or over the phone, etc. I've always bought up close and personal from local coins shops, or at coin shows. For a while last year, the small collectors who deal out of their homes or at shows were not up to speed with the craziness, and their were some outstanding deals as far as what percent over spot they would require.

So, I found their prices to be not much different, if anything, more reasonable than the big name online dealers with the big volume, since they don't have all the shipping overhead. I think now, however, that pretty much everybody realizes the nature of the situation. Expect to pay a lot over spot. I haven't bought junk silver in a year, so I can't give you a good pricing idea, but I think 10% over spot for gold and even 40-50% over spot for silver eagles is about where it's at. Probably the best barometer is E-bay.
Where I live, if I can wait till I have $1000 to spend, I can get away without paying any sales tax.

My regular shop, since they know me [on site, that is, not my name

] will actually let me pass for $500 or $600. Now, the more you have to spend, the more you may need to wait for the dealer to be able to get his hands on it.
Also, we may see a seasonal spike soon, and you may be better off waiting for the typical summer lull. Of course, with the insane nature of the world at this time, all bets could be off any day!
gold:
http://spectrumcommodities.com/education/commodity/charts/gc.html and silver:
http://spectrumcommodities.com/education/commodity/charts/si.htmlJust keep beatin' the bushes!