[nolan5000]

I will contribute to this thread as best I can. I have only been sending in cards for the last year and in that time I have sent in 27 cards total. For fun, I always examine my cards first with the naked eye and come up with a grade I think I will receive just to see how close I am when I actually get my cards back. I have never been more than .5 off on all 27 cards so I would say I am doing pretty good haha. I look for the usual suspects on all my cards in the 4 areas.
For SURFACE, you need to look for scratches and fingerprints. You must remove fingerprints! I use a small piece of fleece fabric with firm pressure but not a ton. If you have scratches, you might not want to send it. Also look for printing flaws. Sometimes the flashy cards have lines that go across them and older cards have what look like ink flaws. Those will hurt.
For CENTERING, you really should compare it to more of the same cards. Do your research and look at the borders of the card. Your looking for equal spacing of the border on both sides. Some cards that are dominated with one color on the entire card are more difficult to judge.
For EDGES, these are usually pretty easy. You want nice smooth edges without chipping or peeling. Follow the edge of the card all the way around it and make sure there are no breaks in it all the way around.
For CORNERS, these are the easiest to me. Obviously sharp corners without dings are ideal. You do not want to see white in these areas. Especially on corners that are black colored. If you have white on a corner that is suppose to be black or a dark color, that is going to be very obvious.
For AUTOS, no smudges and no run off. If your auto runs off the sticker or the card, the best grade you will get on the auto is a 9. If it runs off multiple times but doesnt smear, your looking at an 8 at best.

You can have and most likely will have some sort of ding on almost every card. Especially game used or auto'd cards. Its okay, it doesnt mean you cant get a gold label. But you must be careful. If you have a slightly dinged corner, but everything else is great, then you can still get a good grade. But if you have a ding on a corner, a ding on an edge, and a scratch on the surface you cant remove, then you really shouldnt send that card in looking for a great grade. But sometimes you do get lucky and they may miss something. Something else to remember is that you should look at your cards in different lights. Under a lamp and sunlight. Move your card around to try and reflect different things off the surfaces. Also remember that you need to look at the back of the card as well. A lot of people forget about that. Usually cards that grade 9.5 or better are cards that you really dont see much wrong with. Amazingly, I have found out that finding those kinds of cards after examining them is actually pretty rare for gu/auto stuff. So if you have a whole giant stack of cards you think should grade gem mint, you should probably re-examine being more critical of your stuff.

+1 Well said!!