This I feel, is a must for any dealer to be on the top of his game. Going for coin shows and auctions will help to keep the dealer abreast of what"s going on in the coin world.
It will also open up a lot of avenues for you as they"ll know which coins are up for sale at the coin shows, and which ones aren"t. You"ll get better service from the dealers if they regularly frequent these coin shows as they"ll then be at a better place to give you almost hot-off-the-press news.
The dealer who doesn"t attend coin shows will find themselves falling behind the others and getting their information second hand, which means that you"ll be getting your information third hand.
As you might have gathered by now, that"s not what you want. You want your dealer to be able to give you the information that counts when it matters, not when it"s too late for you to do anything about it.
Of course, if you"re living in a small community your dealer might not be able to compete with some of the bigger coin dealing firms at the coin shows, which means they also won"t be able to travel as much.
This is alright really, as long as the dealer manages to get in some traveling within the year to some of coin shows and auctions.
Don"t knock the small town dealer, they"re sometimes vastly more experienced than some of their big city counterparts and can probably give you a lot of advice and a helping hand now and again when you need it.