Shops locally do not have good prices. Academy Sports, a chain sometimes has good deal but selection is limited. To prove a point, Academy has a Ruger GP100 4" Blued for $529.99 before tax, new. Local shops I visited when shopping for one of these wanted $650 for a used one, no upgrades of any kind. I ended up getting two used ones for about $875 including transfer and shipping costs and both were stainless off of gunbroker, so for me online has been better. When I was putting together my AR15 I got everything off the internet and total not including magazines which were bought local was around $620 including shipping and transfer fees. Cheapest I could have picked one up locally would have been around $1,000, again point for online purchasing.
It does suck that I can't inspect a firearm prior to purchase but unfortunately the shops around me overcharge on everything, unreasonably too in my opinion, but based on my good experiences with online purchases I will continue to do so.