Nowadays, with 8-10 speed wheels being End-of-Life cleared out, all over the place, you can get good wheels for dirt cheap. I recently paid $144 for a set of Easton AXR wheels that were $450 retail 1-2 years ago through Nashbar. That deal is still available ($180 less 20% with free shipping). The same 20% + free shipping discount is also available at Nashbar for the Vuelta Corsa SLR wheels, which I also considered - but I went with the Eason AXRs.

I also picked up a spare used set of 10-speed Mavic CX22 wheels - with Felt-branded Origin8 hubs (in really nice condition) for $50 locally off craigslist from a guy who just put a $1000 set of wheels on his bike (and surprisingly saw no reason to keep his old ones as spares).