General considerations on choosing lucha libre masks

I probably should blog more than once a month, but I'm a slow writer. :-p Anyway, some final, non-vendor-specific tips on buying masks, before I start reviewing individual sellers.

As a note, I'll be focusing on professional-grade masks, since that's what I've been personally buying. I don't have the experience to judge the quality difference between a vendor's pro-quality masks and their next step down, or to recommend whether the savings would be worth it. I do know that I'm happy with most of my masks, and that there's enough variation within what's nominally called "professional-quality" to give me enough material to write about. :)

Know what you want, how much you want to pay, and how long you want to wait
This may seem obvious, but there are infinitely many variations on any given mask style, and any good mascarero will be able to change colors, materials, sizes, and styles on demand, especially for pro-grade masks. Some may keep some sort of stock on hand, especially for masks of the more well-known luchadores, but will be happy to do a custom order if you're willing to wait. Lead time varies depending on how complex/different the order is and the size of their backlog, but 4-8 weeks is reasonable for a style that the mascarero isn't used to making. (I waited about 8 weeks for my custom Rey Cometa mask; it was worth it!) Be sure to ask ahead of time and to be prepared to be very specific about what you want. (Pictures help here, if it's a style that the luchador has actually worn.)

Even if you aren't placing a custom order, it's possible that the mascarero has lots of different styles available for a given mask (including, in some cases, variants that were rarely or never actually worn by the luchador), so be ready to choose among more options than you were originally thinking about.

Know whether and where you're willing to compromise
If you aren't willing to wait for a custom order and can't find someone who has exactly what you want, have an idea of how much you're willing to compromise from what you originally wanted, and in what aspects. Perhaps a different color is available, or perhaps an open-/closed-mouth variant is acceptable, or perhaps a lower-quality version is okay for what you want.

Also, have an idea of how much of a stickler for accuracy you're going to be. Do keep in mind that masks are hand-made and that a given luchador has possibly worn masks with more minor variants than you might be aware of, so a strict, hard-line comparison to single reference image or video may not be the best idea, even for the purposes of looking for something like alignment of one part of the design with another. (For example, the exact placement of the cross on the forehead of the Rey Mysterio mask varies considerably. A quick Google image search shows this rather readily, but making this sort of determination for lesser known luchadores is going to be harder.)

Ask for more pictures if necessary!
If you need pictures from different angles (especially with designs on the back of the mask becoming more common) to judge whether you want to buy, don't be afraid to ask for them! Sometimes vendors, especially private sellers on eBay or MercadoLibre, don't take as many (or any!) pictures of the back of the mask, or don't take photos at high enough of a resolution to be able to judge the quality of details, such as stitching.

If you suspect that the mask would be on hand, it might be worth asking whether you can see photos of the exact copy that would be sent to you before you buy it. This might be a bit toward, but I explain that I'm a serious buyer, understand that masks are hand-made and, because of the shipping distance and cost, want to be sure beyond a doubt that I'll be happy with what I'm specifically buying.