For the markets I go to it would be hard to have a decent number of tomatoes of any 1 variety with less than about 10 plants. Especially when the plants are just getting started. I would say you need about 10 lbs / variety just to get it noticed. Just a couple of tomatoes at a time wouldn't cut it except at the very very beginning of homegrown tomatoes for your area.
If you are being very attentive to your plants, much more than I can be, you might get away with 5 or 6 plants / variety, but I think that would be about the minimum. By attentive I mean staking/caging, mulching, watering, all the stuff that someone with only a few plants can do vs someone that has a few ACRES of plants.
The amount of fruit you would need would also depend on the size of your market. If it's a small market with only a few vendors, you might get away with less. The market I go to has about 120 vendors and around 25,000 visitors when the weather is nice.
Another big thing would be to check with your market about how they feel about sampling. Unfortunately my best market is in a big city and they have gone overboard on the sampling rules. Virtually anything that needs to be "cut" for sampling is a No-No. So cutting the big tomatoes for cubes to sample is out for me. Letting people try any of the cherry or grape varieties is OK tho.
Since they imposed the no-cut rule it has really hurt melon sales too. You can sell 2-3 times as many melons (cantalopes and watermelons) if people can taste them.
Just some more things to think about. Those are my experiences and may very well be different elsewhere.
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