I would just like to add a few comments to a guide to buying Rare Chinese antiques - Things to consider by Lock186..
I have to agree with almost every comment made in that guide with the exception that I have never had an item break due to the Chinese way of packing. It is the best I have received.  I started a small collection of  medium to low priced incense burners from both the Asian Antiques sites and the Home Fragrances sites. I found some surprising good bargains.  For those who have noticed the silver Nine Dragons Incense burner - Ming Dynasty I have been able to find the translation of the date stamp. It is from the reign of Emperor Xuande (or Hsuan-te) from the years 1426-1435. I have learned from another source that Chinese bronzes can have a reign mark of an older period but can be cast in later reigns. If someone knows if this is true I would appreciate any corroboration. It makes practical sense. Many pieces look "assembled" even though they are one or two piece lost wax casts. The molds to make the wax patterns could have been kept for centuries and in the case of the Dragon Phoenix model seem to have been used in various combinations to make customized pieces.  I think you will see the same kind of  process with antique French furniture bronzes.
 I found two well made burners in New York City in a shop on  Mulberry St. After I found the burner I began looking on the web for some information about it. Among other sites, I found eBay. I assumed when I bought the burners that they were new. I didn't even expect them to be reproductions. I was surprised to see such an opulent piece of metal work go for about $75.00 (it had a 25% markdown for Christmas). It was genuine bronze - not the bonded bronze you see in the MET store or the Smithsonian Store and it was going for a fraction of the price or those ersatz reproductions.  The pieces that look like it on eBay are called various names but usually Ming Dynasty Dragon Phoenix with Kylin and it was produced in many different forms. The basic shape of the piece is constant as are the phoenix (or cockatrice) handles and the Kylin prancing on the lid. What changes is the way the piece is finished and whether or not it has two Dragon escutcheons on both sides. I have watched the site for almost six months and have seen at least a dozen of this style and the silver nine dragons. I don't doubt that both styles of burner are antique pieces but I really only expect that I have won items that date at most two hundred years (if that). The silver is so tarnished in some places (because the burner has raised panels that cover places were the silver could never be polished) that I think it is completely oxidized. There are signs inside other burners where the investment for the lost wax process is still caught inside legs and in folds or creases on the walls of the interior and the green color of copper oxidation can be well advanced. I assume this is because the piece might have been in a humid environment and the investment tends to hold atmospheric moisture. I try to remove the bulk of that investment - only leaving a little to indicate that the item is a lost wax cast because I don't want to encourage the corrosion process.  I also live in a humid environment. I won a pretty burner with a lion figure on top that is also obviously very old although I can't translate the stamp. It was originally silver plated with gold high lights. The silver is black now and no amount of polishing will get it back. I would rub to the base bronze. The gold is still bright however, but gold is inert and tends to hold up to age.

I have learned a little about the history of China and know that during the cultural revolution it was illegal to burn incense unless it was to honor the picture of Chairman Mao. I don't know what people did with these burners before the Cultural Revolution or after. In a communist system how much of a market for antiques could there have been? And the Cultural Revolution indulged in episodes of iconoclasm. I get the impression from many of the Chinese dealers that they may not actually know how old what they are selling really is. They may also not know where the piece may have been produced. "Tibetan" is often used to describe a piece from one dealer and "Chinese" may be the term used by another dealer for the same kind of burner. I think Tibet has "exotic" overtones for the Chinese. Several of the Chinese dealers use web designs that are so similar they may be "package deals" provided by a franchise.  The sites that talk about the  history of China don't usually say much except that the culture is very old. I have tried to ask native Chinese speakers if they can translate the stamps and they can't. The characters are obsolete. All they can tell me is that the text is "ancient".

The two burners I mentioned may indeed by quite old but they could also be very common. The population of China has been very large for a very long time and any piece that was produced over a long period of time could exist in large numbers. It doesn't mean that there is a factory producing a lot of fake antiques although I do know that the two burners I got in New York are reproductions. The bronze inside the vessel is fresh and almost as bright as the exterior. I have cast bronze myself for some chandelier repair work and the metal looks like what I produced. The Silver Nine dragons is dull gray inside and silver to black outside. It's been around for some time.  The reproductions are clean. The old pieces tend to be dusty and sometimes a little dirty.  And the interiors are gray from use.

One thing to avoid - in spite of the high EMS costs - is shipping by SAL.. I made the mistake of asking for that on a beautiful piece that I won for the opening price and never received it. The dealer was able to give me a replacement burner - but not that piece- and he assumed the cost of shipping. It's a fine old piece expertly made. But I am waiting still for the arrival of the original burner because he swears he sent it. I have promised to pay him if it ever shows up. I only saved ten dollars by shipping with SAL but as I understand the limitations of SAL it could be stranded in a warehouse somewhere waiting for space on a flight. Apparently SAL is to air freight what "stand-by" is to passenger air travel.

One thing to notice is the weight of the piece. You can look up EMS rates on line. One dealer wanted  $435.00 for shipping and handling for a 30lb burner that according to EMS rates would have cost him $160.00. You would need a lot of foam packaging and enormous customs duties to make up the difference. The customs duties are levied on the price the piece was sold for not the total cost of the piece to the winner. In the case of the burner that vanished, customs would have been levied on an item that was won for less than ten dollars.  The total cost to me was $140.00. With S&H charges of perhaps $.75.00 the balance was hidden profit.