Collecting anything, from pebbles to Renaissance portraits, is a matter of experience.
If you're collecting modern blades in "traditional" styles from Central and East Asia, you're in the enviable position of being able to take notes and snap reference images with your phone as you shop. This will allow you to make some comparisons at the end of the day. Compare details such as form and embellishment. Whatever you're seeing multiples of isn't likely to be the best work available.
Before you ever set foot in a market, bazaar or suk, you should be thoroughly familiar with what these "traditional" styles are. With this in mind:
--Examine as many originals as you can, ideally in museums and private collections. If there are none available near you, buy books. There are a number of Soviet-era Russian works with English summaries that provide good treatments on Uighur, Uzbek, Turkmen and other Central Asian general ethnic arts. These often contain edged weapons, you just have to look.
--Don't credit hearsay, particularly not from a seller, most especially one you don't know.
-- If you make a purchase and later regret it based upon your continued observations: Congratulations, you've learned something. Consider the cost of the piece a payment against your tuition.
Good luck and have fun learning!
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