I've been in this hobby for a long time, but I am learning new things every day. Here are some of the things I have learned about grading:
1)
Length of time I examine a card. The longer I study a card, the more flaws I seem to catch.
2)
Lighting. There is a huge difference between studying your cards in the daylight (natural light) and looking at them under a light bulb (artificial light). Also, the level of brightness makes a difference as well.
3)
Angle. When I tilt a card at a certain angle, I tend to see more ugly things.
4)
Magnification. The closer I zoom, the more bad things I see.
So here is what I want you guys to do: get your favorite card and study it for ten minutes under strong artificial light. During the examination, I also want you to tilt the card at different angles. Now, tell me, did you find something you never saw previously? Did I ruin your day?
And I want to end this post with a question: where do we draw the line when it comes to grading? Is examining a card for ten minutes too much? What about 50x magnification or very strong light?