Also, I am noticing something very bizarre. When I search for a keyword I have been optimizing the home page for, on about the 4th-5th-6th etc. page there is a page from my site (not the home page, an inner page). This is characteristic of the sandbox but my sites are very old and have been through that already. Looks like G doesn't 'trust' my sites again.
The results are poorer quality. My sites had excellent, thorough content (800+ articles giving the searcher EXACTLY what he/she is looking for in thorough, well written detail) however they have been crushed. Instead we've got pages from amazon, sears, target, nextag, etc etc. with very little content on them at all. If a searcher searches for reviews on something, they are in buying mode but want to know more, e.g. which X Y Z is the best, pros and cons, common problems with the item in question etc. Going to a sears page with very little content is not what I call fulfilling the searcher's needs which is to have top quality information before buying. I would hardly call that black hat. Yes my link building is pretty black but I know my content is the most relevant and the best for the keywords I am targeting. I know I may be biased but prior to making my sites I knew that content was going to be king (or so I thought) therefore I made sure it was top class. It seems none of that shit matters when it comes to big corporations taking all the serps up.