Tom;
Lots of good info posted so far on this thread. One thing I'd add is that planning the pose or more accurately "considering all your options" before your hunt is very important. Once an animal is on the ground you need to be able to decide on the pose and the best skinning or caping options before a knife is put into service.
Many pedestal mounts require considerable additional cape length. And finishing the back of a pedestal mount with the same skin without a seam requires that it is not split down the center beyond the shoulder. Conversely if you only want a shoulder mount you can save quite a bit of money not shipping and tanning additional hide.
Display options and the type of space each requires is also very important. If you have 8' ceilings and go with an alert or head high mount the brisket will be at 4' when a decent bull's head touches the ceiling. If you go with head down you can get the overall mount higher of the floor but the nose will protrude into the room 5' or more which is problematic in a narrow room.
To some degree pedestal mounts and some other poses can incorporate additional turn to compact the overall space requirement and still show off the huge mass which is what a buffalo is all about. A 90% turn pedestal mount requires an approx. 4 x 4 x 4 space and can be put on a pedestal high enough to put a lot of that mass above head bumping height.
Pedestal mounts also bring much more of 3rd dimension to a game room and mount and can provide valuable storage space.