Well, since Ohio is mentioned, I suppose I can speak up on this...
In Northern Ohio [where I'm from] it's nothing but powder. & some fire powder at that. But if you go south, we'll say Columbus [cause it's well known] it's all tar. I've never heard of ANYBODY down there getting powder, unless someone brought it from the north.
It's kind of odd, though.. If you drive 15-20 minutes north of where I live, powder. But if you drive literally 10 minutes south of me, it turns into tar. & shitty tar at that. Usually you need 4-5 balloons to even get well. & if you're opiate intolerant, it still takes 2-3 balloons to catch any kind of high. So it's pretty shitty, that's for sure.
But, you can go to Toledo, and basically pick your poison. You can get tar or powder. Up there, the tar is still garbage, but the powder is usually pretty decent. Only reason I think the Glass City gets powder though, is because it's SO close to Michigan. Like, literally a hop-skip-and a jump away.
Overall though, and this is just my experiences, is that the tar we get, is pretty shitty. I'm sure there's people in Ohio that get some fire tar, just like I'm sure some people get really shitty powder. The only time I've ever had bad powder, was when I was ripped off by a friend, and he just filled it up with some random powder like baking soda. But he got me back later, with legit dope, so all was good. But I haven't found any shitty powder yet. .1, sniffed... still gets me to where I want to be. .2 and I'm nodding nicely... if I do anymore then that, I'm usually just drooling on myself and babbling about some shit that doesn't make any sense.
Remember though, this is all just through my experiences. Someone in the next city over, might have something completely different to say about it though.
Edit:
Since packaging was mentioned, I'll tell you what I see...
For tar, it's always been in balloons. I've never seen tar sold, and there not be a balloon. Period. But the powder, it usually comes in aluminum foil folds, or paper folds. The paper folds vary in color, but that's only if you're buying a few bags. When you're buying weight with powder.. half gram or more, it's still usually in an aluminum foil fold, but then it's put inside of one of the mini ziplock bags.
The tar, whether you're buying one balloon or a hundred, it still comes in balloons.