It definitely depends on the brand, SY and Decool have long been the gold standard. As of late though SY seems to just rehash things and Decool have mainly been copying sets and been pretty dormant overall.
The big players now are XINH and Pogo, they are generally good but can sometimes suffer from poor artwork choice or quality assurance. DLP is some where in the middle with bringing out never done figs and churning out copies of TLG stuff.
It's best to normally wait until actual pictures popup on AE, but sometimes patience can override hesitation.