Wheelbuilding
 

whats the typical price range for a lbs to build a set of wheels?

I used to charge a dollar per spoke so that would be $32.00 labor for a typical 32 spoke wheel.

Generally I can buy pre-built wheels for about the same price or sometimes even for less than the cost of the components.

Well, someone has to start this thread...

I'll say $70 labor for two wheels. Spokes and nipples ($20 each wheel) $40.

I've never had a shop build a set, so the labor cost is based on pure guess.

If you are looking for a complete wheelset, it is often much cheaper to buy a premanufactured wheelset, which are machine built. You'll get new hubs, rims, spokes, nipples. Just my $0.02

If you already have really good hubs (Chorus/Ultegra or above) it might be worthwhile to pay for new rims and spokes and labor from a good wheelbuilder. Otherwise, you do better to get preassembled wheels. The cost of the components and labor from an LBS almost always has to exceed the cost of good quality prebuilts.

Your spoke price is low. Spokes run from $1.00 to $1.50 for DT Swiss round, double butted spokes

NJWheelBuilder, I think that was labor-only, figured on the basis of the number of spokes needed per a wheel. Shops advertising online quote around $40/ wheel + materials and shipping.