The most predictable blanks are perfectly quarter sawn. Slab or rift can be nice but I least worry about direction of grain flow in the wrist and side to side run out. You even get a few blanks which start out as one thing on one end and end up another by the end of the blank. You see a lot of quarter to rift blanks but you have to watch where the grain changes direction. Also rift to slab blanks as well. It is for that reason I won't by any blanks unless I can get clear pictures of all six sides of the blank.
Some one sided blanks will improve when shaped. Some even become no sided as all the surface figure is lost when cut. Even looking at the butt end can only give you a hint but no absolute guarantee of what you will get. And if the seller claims kiln dried wood I just walk away. Kiln dried wood tends to be very prone to chipping and may have extreme areas or stress in them due to such rapid drying. Bad enough with some sellers claiming air dried wood which you find out later is only half dried. Better to buy the wood and let it dry several years more before you use it. Unless you live in extreme climate areas I don't think you can damage wood by letting it dry longer. It's for that reason many of us have many more blanks than we will ever use, just drying in our wood racks. I had 300 blanks at one time but have culled them down to a tidy 40-50 blanks. If lucky I'll get to use a quarter of them.
