The one I'm looking at has no bends or dents at least. It's in decent shape, just not excellent. I noticed no rust on the sword, maybe a bit on the scabbard. the plastic type handle had some very small chips here and there. On the positive, I have very few swords. But the negative is still pretty big, it's South American and not WWI or WWII related. If it is really a $400 sword, I'd potentially buy if for $240. Just not finding much out there on value.