Originally Posted by
cyclotoine
Looks like someone over-torqued the headset press. I'd build it and ride and see how it feels. if it handles well, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but I would seek compensation or try to return it too the seller if possible, personally. It's always a bummer to pay for what you think is an intact item and then find a defect, suddenly you feel cheated even if the price is still reasonable in light of the defect and that feeling is impossible to erase.
Originally Posted by
obrentharris
I haven't seen that sort of bulge in a head tube before. Cyclotoine's suggestion of an overtorqued headset press sounds like a plausible one to me.
Did the LBS check the head tube angle? I would recommend checking that before building it up just to be sure that whatever caused that bulge did not alter the head angle and therefor the handling of the bike.
Brent
Have you considered the amount of force needed to do such damage? While I cannot offer a better explanation, I think this theory is a bit of a reach. We will likely never know. I would take a hard look at the top tube and down tube also. I can't tell from the photo if the bulge goes all the way around.