So I just bought my first "real" wheels, a handbuilt 36 spoke touring wheelset. I ordered them on ebay, but they are new and were sold through a shop. Upon opening the box, I was surprised to see that inside the rim the area around some of the spoke holes is pretty chewed up. Having never looked at handbuilt wheels before, I'm not sure if this is normal, or if it warrants trying to exchange the wheels through the shop.

If I sand it down a little bit or just cover it with rim tape will it matter? Should I return the wheels? What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance.

How many spoke holes? Are they worse than the pictured damage? Rim tape should easily barrier against that unless it's really poky (hard to tell from the picture). I'd just as well return/exchange it if there's a lot...

The ones pictured are definitely the worst of the bunch. That one that looks really bad is certainly "pokey," I'd probably have to file or sand it or something.

That's a personal call I guess. My time is valuable I wouldn't want to spend it filing a rim that's supposed to be good to go.

Ditto. I'd be curious about other matters as well - like spoke-tension and dishing.

well, i guess it comes down to this,

will it affect you ride much? probably not, I think that's exactly what rim tape is for.

But

Do you trust someone who built a wheel like that to also build a wheel well? And furthermore, since this was obviously not as advertised, do you really trust an Ebay seller as unscrupulous as them to build you a good wheel. If you want to push it, I'm sure you can get your money back, but if not, I find it very unlikely that those wheels will kill you (unless they have another, less obvious flaw)

What kind of rim is that?

There is hardly anything that can't be made cheaper and worse. Rather than drilling the spoke holes, those look to me like they were punched into the rim - with a dull punch.

It's a Mavic A119 rim. Other Bikeforums members have bought wheels from this seller and said the customer service was good, so I'll try contacting the shop.

I guess I just wanted to know if this was normal, since I've never used handbuilt wheels before. And it looks like the answer is "no."

That looks like the builder got careless with a power tool when he was first tensioning the spokes. It's sloppy but OK. I would smooth it down with some emery paper and use them, if only because that's easier than sending them back.

em