Kinda yes, because I was really into PMs at the time and frequented a lot of forums about them, etc, so I pretty much was familiar with a lot of options and knew which ones were good and not, by asking advice from other people that were even MORE into them than I. :)
But kinda no, because the spreads are so tight on bullion that as long as you aren't getting ripped off, you are fine and can't really get the price that much lower by shopping around further. Now, numismatics are another matter... but I never believed in buying numismatics, only bullion. If you buy something like say, Krugerrands, the price is gonna be pretty damn close to spot. Or if you buy like generic silver rounds/bars, same thing it's basically spot you're buying at (maybe a hair over).