what are the tips and secrets to achieving this. im horrible at stacking cakes. i always get a dip or its not very level.
i use foam core boards covered with press-n-seal. bubble tea straws for stacking the cakes.
i look at the stacked cakes here with envy.
i know practice, practice, practice....i really want to get nice looking stacked cakes. nicely stacked cakes look strong and elegant.
TIA
Use a leveler. If your cakes are baking with a high dome that ends up getting cut off, try baking at a lower temp with a flower nail in the middle. You'll still need to level a bit for absolute perfection, but it won't feel like you're cutting off half the cake when you level it.
I use foam core covered in press and wrap also, but I use wilton's hollow plastic dowels. You have to cut all the dowels to the same height, even if the cake is a tiny bit lower than the dowels in a spot or two.
As Texas says, reduce the doming by using flower nail and/or baking strips with a reduced temp.
If your cakes rise higher than the pan, use the pan as a guide to trim the doming.
If your cakes don't rise higher than the pan, and you're having trouble leveling with a leveler, here's a tip I picked up from fellow CC'ers and it works great.
Remove the cake from the pan. Place 1 to 3 cardboards in the pan. Put the cake back in the pan. The cake is now elevated higher than the edge of the pan. Use the pan as a guide, slice off the doming and you have the most perfectly level cake you've ever seen.
The only bad part is sometimes it's hard to get the cardboards out of the pan! 
The only bad part is sometimes it's hard to get the cardboards out of the pan!
Maybe a piece of plastic wrap inside the pan, then the cardboards? If the plastic wrap was tough enough you could use it to pull the cardboards out. 
I always use the 3" deep pans but I bake two layers for each, so I can't use the pan to level my cakes...but that little cheap Wilton leveler with the wire works really well.
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