Could we trust this seller?

I'm no expert, but I, like you, find it highly doubtfull that this is real.

Very unlikely that they are authentic. Even they are authentic, with this quality, no one in the right mind will sell it for slightly more than a 100.

Having said that, I have seen swords like this going around ebay for $7K

Most likely produced recently, and with some work, makes it look antique

Ebay is a scam minefield... you just have to walk carefully.

Here is the link. If you scroll down and look at the picture of the guy in the full suit of leather armor I believe you will see the resemblance.
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350078255861&indexURL=2&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting

I would excersize extreme caution when buying antique objects (be them weapons or furniture or pottery, etc) from China. Recently there has been an influx in "ancient" objects sold to collectors which aren't ancient at all.

I do not know about swords but with pottery, they are so smart that they can reproduce a pot or ceramic to the minute detail, indistinguishable from the real thing. Even carbon dating is fooled. What they do is, the use real ancient ceramics which are broken, lets say a bottom of a jar. Then they sculpt the rest of the jar ontop of it. When a laboratory does carbon dating they scartch some material of the bottom of the jar (the only real ancient piece) and the tests will say that it is authentic.

Chances are that only parts of this sword are really ancient or its just a fake alltogether. Remember that in modern times there are very strict laws forbidding any ancient findings to be exported out of China.

Source: Expert, 30 years +, on east-asian antique furniture and ceramics who runs a specialized shop for it. I had a long conversation about it with him.

Jonathan, that link you posted belongs to a guy by the name of Clint Robinson; I've had him make up some custom pieces for me- he is really good at what he does with leather, really, REALLY good. I bought a matching set of vambraces w/demi gauntlets and greaves- the ringmail ones you'll see on his site if you click on his eBay store. Oristian Subculture's the name of his store; his prices are decent and the work is top notch. Best set I've ever seen or worn and I've had quite a few differing types, of leather and steel.

To the OP- buy it and take it to a museum; if its bull, they should 'happily' refund you your money and if it is authentic, well you just got the equivalent of Edward the Black Prince's sword, which was supposedly found in an umbrella stack in some cigar shop.

To me, it looks like a bad mockup of the Gou Jian sword here, albeit with cutouts/slots:

Right; in fact I spoke with him about doing a whole ringmail suit but...that really isn't my style. Clint models all his armor so that's him in the suit; I just figured Sean got one too, never thought to ask if that was him or not. It is an awesome suit of armor though; like I said, I've not seen any better than his when it comes to leatherwork.

Since he does not list them for sale... and he and I worked it out privately, it would be inaproprate, I think, to share the price publicly.

He may or may not being willing to make you one if you ask him... but drop him a line if you are really serious and he'll talk to you about it I'm sure. He is super friendly.

I want mine in purple! Green is kick ass too tho... if I could afford both, I'd do it.

;D