Personally I would say the combination of who the retailer is and the price per stick is key.
First, if it is from a reputable dealer and not some random magazine ad , and you recognize the brands, go for it. (I would avoid Thompson's cheap samplers personally, they put a lot of there own house brands in those)
But saying that, I also would probably avoid the $1 per stick samplers as they are normally not even worth that as they will contain very off brands which aren't even worth the buck. The $2 per stick and up though, if you recognize some of the brands, could be worth the money.
Just my
