Aside from 'Daredevil' #16 being an early issue of Daredevil, and one which first introduced the Masked Marauder, this book's status as a key book stems from it being the very first time that 'Jazzy' John Romita (Sr) drew Spider-Man, pre-dating his taking over as artist on 'Amazing Spider-Man' #39 by 3 months. The first meeting of Daredevil and Spider-Man in DD #16 & 17 gave writer/Editor Stan Lee the chance to assess Romita's potential as a replacement for Ditko.  He passed the test with flying colours, as you can see from the pages here, joined Lee on 'Amazing Spider-Man', and the book went on to even greater sales as a result of Romita's ability to illustrate both dynamic action and intense emotion (a skill developed on Marvel's romance titles).  

This is a much loved and much read copy and unfortunately has the wear to show for it, but it also has many positive features.  This is a good solid book, with no pages or pieces missing, cover and pages all held secure by rust-free original staples. Cover colours show little sign of having faded and there remains some reflective lustre - though it should be noted that  the covers of Marvel Comics in this period were more matt than glossy. Pages are off-white to cream, and remain crisp and supple, with no tanning.

When it comes to defects, the most obvious is the muiltitude of spine-stresses with colour-breaks - one of which, from just below the top staple, stretches almost to Spider-Man's arm.  There is also a diagonal crease-line of 11 cm running from a couple inches above bottom-right to Spider-Man's knee. Within this is a very faint colour-break.  Likewise, there are two almost parallel fold lines running down from the top of the book - one to DD's outstretched arm, the other all the way to the bottom - and there almost imperceptible hairs of colour-break to be discovered on very close scrutiny.  At back of the book, there is a flattened diagonal fold across the top left and three moderate to heavy stresses at bottom-right where the book has perhaps been bent back at some point.  In addition, there is moderate to heavy wear with colour-break lines across the tipof the bottom-right corner, and at top and base of the spine.  The bottom 6mm of the spine has eroded away. There is a small amount of very faint foxing to be found at the bottom of the front and back covers.  

On the Marvel checklist, my 7 year old self has ticked in red biro pen 5 of the comics released that month which I had already bought, and at top-left of the back cover, ink-penned my initials - to ensure I got the book back if loaned to a friend to read. 

I would judge the book to meet or exceed the Overstreet criteria for VG (4.0) but fails to sufficiently satisfy the criteria for VG/Fn, and is therefore best described as being VG+ (4.5), but this is of course simply my judgement in applying the cirtieria, and I hope the number of photos and details of condition will enable you to make your own assessment.