As to a sample pack.....we have been here many times, our logic has always been to make small 25 sheet packets available of all our products, our Paper Marketing Team of old always said you needed 10 sheets to understand a product and a 100 to fall in Love !
I will revisit it, but it would require multiple bagging, a none standard box and assembling by hand, I will have it costed though but NO PROMISES.
I was thinking about this last night, and I don't think it would require multiple bagging.
Compare the Moab Inkjet sampler packet I mentioned earlier, it's only got two sheets of about 10 different paper types.
Each of them has a sticker on, with the name of the paper, weight, and 'print on other side' or 'print on either side'.
Given that we're going to open them under safelight anyway, this is B+W after all, why couldn't you also just sticker them on the back?
As long as the text is large enough to be read under a red safelight, and as long as it survives developing (whatever sticks your 120 film to the paper survives developing), that's all we need.
Then you wouldn't need multiple bags, they could all slip in together in one bag (of course, I don't know a thing about your factory, maybe multiple bags is still easier), but hand-loading would of course jack the price up.
For quantities, I'd be happy with as little as five sheets of 8x10 each. I can cut one up for strips, two can make eight 4x5 proofs, and two stay 8x10s.
That's enough for one or two test photos, and that's enough to see a) the texture, and b) the cold/warm-ness of the tone.
Regarding the texture, I've mentioned (there was a url link here which no longer exists) that it's hard to know what texture is what based on the names, so one print is enough just to tell that.
Hell, even a blank or pre-printed swatch book like the Swiss Ilford (and Hahnemuhle, and probably others) do for their inkjet range would be good enough to tell texture.
These are a great in-store feature for those who go to stores, but would be nice if the rest of the web-shoppers could just buy their own for $5 or something.
As for coldtone/warmtone, I've never used any of it. The closest is when I've used natural/bright in my inkjet, but then my B+W inkjets sucked so I print wet now anyway.
All I've ever done in wet is regular RC MGiv in MG dev, mostly pearl, some gloss because I got some cheap 2nd hand. And only dabbled with a sheet or two of FB.
So I have no idea what the difference is, least of all if different tones looked good or not until I tried it.
The warmtone range that my local shop stocks only starts at $100, that's a bit much just 'to try', and I don't even think they have coldtone.
Next time I order from B+H I might throw in a cheap box of each, but that happens once a year.
Then if I like it that's another year wait, or cough up for high shipping or high aussie retail prices.
So if there were a sample pack of cold/warm tone etc, and I could get it from my local shop for less than $30, I'd be all over it, and may even like it enough to buy a box of 100 and get to know it better.