Really depends on the card. Some of what I collect is plentiful modern stuff, so for that I'll just try to find a raw one on eBay that looks NM+ and if there's anything noticeably off I'll pass. Some of what I collect is unique or very nearly so, so the condition is irrelevant. (Can't find a better example if there's only one example.) For the moderately tough pre-war cards - like, say, a Kotton, it's probably like this.
1. No heavy creases
2. No paper loss
3. Player's image uninterrupted by stains or print defects
4. Clean back
5. No "poor" corners or edges
6. Centering I guess
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