Ok. I'm going to try and help by passing on our own experience. We got our first Maine Coons in July 2013, a mum and daughter, from 2 ladies who breed MCs in Yorkshire. Never owned Maine Coons before and first saw and fell in love with them at the Supreme Show in 2008. We have since got 2 more MCs from them (2 boys) and this evening we are bringing home our 3rd boy, again from the same breeders. So we have 5 coonies ranging in age from 2 years, 4 months old to 4 months old. These breeders are very experienced.
Whenever we've visited the breeders, we have seen lots of relatives - parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, sometimes grandparents depending on the lineage. The cats and kittens all play together and have loads of comfy beds plus a lovely cat run outside, and on every visit we've ended up cuddling all the cats (heck, I know them all by name now!!). Every time we have brought home a new kitten (always after 12 weeks), the paperwork was sorted and ready - GCCF registration card, pedigree, 4 weeks' free insurance, vaccination and vet record, contract, dietary information, along with toys, a food sample, a voucher and various bits and bobs. That's what you should be expecting from a good breeder. In addition, we have kept in touch with them and they have given plenty of advice, encouragement and generally been really supportive, answering all our many questions.
They have a number of cats who have been shown - one boy in particular is a very recognisable cat who got his Imperial title not long ago. We've visited several shows to get an idea of what's involved. With their encouragement, we have recently started showing and one of our girls got her 2nd PC at the Manchester show on Saturday - at only our 2nd show. We're entering both the North West at the end of Sept and the Yorkshire show in Oct. It's a steep learning curve but we've really enjoyed it so far!
Hope that helps!