Thanks for the responses. That trick for determining roundness will be useful in the future. I quoted the wheelset price wrong. It's actually about $300. I think I would like to learn how to build wheels so I think I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to get the rear wheel looked at to see if the hub is salvageable. If it's not, I'll upgrade with something nice, any suggestions?
I'm going to re-build the front wheel myself because I already took it apart and some of the spokes were screwed anyway. I just need to find a truing stand.