99% of the stuff on Ebay is junk. ANYTHING from China or India or Indonesia is going to be a fake and probably a badly made fake, period. Any popular sword (American civil war, etc) is suspect. China, India and Indonesia are turning out Samurai, Kris, Tulwars, etc, by the tens of thousands.
However, if you limit yourself to American sellers with unidentified western European swords being sold simply as
"old sword" or
"antique sword", you're pretty safe. There's simply no percentage in going through all the trouble to fake Solingen, Artilleria, Tula, Klingenthal, etc, marked swords and then let them go for $75 or $100.
This link has great photos and information on most European and American swords, right down to various proof marks telling you the years of manufacture.
http://www.oldswords.com/ Using this link and the pix provided by the seller you can clearly identify at least 80% of the unknown swords being sold on EBay.
So, here's the deal - an unidentified antique sword sold on Ebay can be had for $100 or less. Personally, $100 is usually my limit except in very rare cases. Once you ID the sword the value goes up dramatically, and with a little research you can ID the sword
before even buying it. So, the "antique sword" you buy for $50 or $100, can be resold (or just kept as an investment or collection) since you now know it's a French 1896 Cavalry sword worth $500 - $750 (depending on condition).
And trust me, there are a lot of people on Ebay who pick up an old sword and sell it blind. Apparently, "google" isn't in their vocabulary. Some of these swords are quite common - like the M1907 I keep raving about - and those are tough enough to use as a combat or practice sword without worrying about damaging it.
Anyway, if you shop smart you can build a pretty good collection for not a lot of money.
