When it comes to buying an esrog, what is important to people here in terms of the way it looks? Obviously it must be kosher, but the hiddur is in the look of the esrog.
I like mine to have a nice shape, and not to be too yellow. I find that if I get one that’s already bright yellow, by the time I get to Chol Hamoed, it’s starting to turn brown already. I prefer the pale yellow/light green shade, as it stays through the whole Yom Tov. After I have those two things, I’ll look to see how clean the esrog is.
This year, I was debating between 2 esrogim. One was 100% clean – no scratches, no marks, nothing. Completely clean. The problem was, I didn’t like the shape too much. The other esrog had the perfect shape, but had 2 small scratches near the bottom. The top half was completely clean. I went with the 2nd one, as the shape is more important to me.