[LAU] Sample Packs/ Collections?

This may well be a bit OT, but I would be grateful if someone could point me in the direction of some reasonable quality sample packs (any genres). There seem to be a lot of commercial packs across the internet, some with pretty hefty pricetags, but as far as I can see, most have no way of finding out what the quality is like before buying. I don't have any objection to spending money if the samples are good, and useful - I'm mostly interested in single-shot samples. To my mind pre-bought loops are just a bit too lazy (even for me!). Also, any pointers to good Free collections of samples? Most of the cc stuff I've come across seem to be recordings of less than useful things, such as sound in a cafe, coughing etc... James