Brick is brick. That weed, like all brick, looks like it was beaten with an ugly stick, but frankly, if you're going to smoke commercially grown weed, brick is the way to go.

The compression keeps the moisture in (which makes it smoke better) - I bet when you broke that open it smelled really nice. Considering brick usually goes through a lot of hands and sits around in trucks and warehouses in all manner of temperature fluctuations and so on, the compression keeps the insides of brick fresh (ish).

I have known snobs who hate brick and refuse to buy it but if you're going to buy mid-grade weed, I still say that's the way to go. If indeed that was 4 ounces, I'd say you got a good deal. That could be some good day to day smokin' herb.

The bricking process compacts things in such a way that you can't really tell much about its potency by looking at it. I've occasionally been very surprised by brick.