I'm sorry to say Michael...but I'm not surprised that FedEx denied the claim. All of the damage I see in the pictures you posted looks like wear and a lot of tear on the wheels well before they were shipped. And if you look at the damage on the cardboard...it doesn't coincide with any of the damage on the wheels themselves.
I have a couple of questions for you...I know from speaking to you before you bought the wheels that the seller sent you pics...and that at least one wheel was damaged already. Do you know when those pics were taken? Were they taken within a few days of the sale or did the seller show you pics from soon after he purchased/installed them on his car? And didn't you mention that the seller contacted you about buying his wheels? That's definitely a red flag...
I've seen several of these cases now and the common thread is that people that ship wheels like your seller did do it for a reason...so they can claim all the damage was the shipper's fault. It's not a good idea to buy used sh*t unless you can inspect it in person IMO.
