I would like to know the answer to this as well. The only thing I can think of is to buy them at Hobby Lobby or Micheal's Art Store with a 40-50% off coupon. You can download the app to get weekly coupons. Plus, Prisma color markers are already cheaper than Copic. You can use a coupon on them too.

I use Promarkers, they're pretty cheap as far as "quality" markers go and I really like them They're slightly different from copics (no brush tip, only "hard" tips, dunno if you're okay with that) but I'm happy with the results I get.

Have you tried this trick for making your markers last longer? They aren't really dead when they start to dry out.

I've heard that Neopiko-2 markers are decent. Deleter makes them, and they're pretty popular when it comes to screen tones and other manga tools. Akadot.com has them on sale for $1 a marker.

Other than that, maybe try out some Copic knock offs like Finecolour markers.

Promarkers are OK.
As long as its alcohol based it should work OK.

One thing to keep in mind is when a marker dies and isn't refillable you replace it at full price.
A copic marker is refillable. Each refill costs a dollar. You get around 8 to 12 refills in one bottle of ink. (ciao markers are cheaper than sketch markers too. About as much as other single use markers)
If you have colours you use a lot your long term costs are dramatically reduced with refillable markers.
If you're building a collection that's a good way to start.
I started with tria and promarkers and gradually converted over to copic. The savings I noticed were phenomenal.

Hm...I would say Copics are worth it IF either you can afford it or you will be doing art for a living. If it's a hobby and you can't afford them, you might as well stick with a cheaper brand such as those mentioned before.

I agree with @gurukittystudio that Copics can be worth it. I don't have them because I don't know how to use markers and I definitely can't afford them, but they are worth it because they are refillable. As long as you can afford it and need it, go ahead.

Pantone and Nekopiko are cheap alternatives. However, they're definitely subpar in quality compared to copic. You get what you pay for I guess. Prisma is nice, but it's also expensive. Plus they're smelly. I used to use them but i just couldn't take the smell...
If you're new to manga and comics, I'd recommend using watercolor. If you use a higher concentration of watercolor when you paint, you can achieve a marker-like effect. Or splurge an extra few and buy some gouache watercolor, which is more opaque than regular watercolor. Watercolor is definitely cheaper and easier to use. You can buy a cheap pack of only several colors and just mix them until you get the right colors you want. Most professionals who color traditionally use watercolor. For instance, Takano Ichigo514. This is kinda a generalization but from what I've seen, most shounen jump authors use markers to color. Probably because it's faster since you don't have to wait as long for it to dry. They do have more insane deadlines than most others.
Markers can bleed easily and dry out. Plus it's hard to blend colors and you have to buy bristol smooth paper, which can get costly. I really don't recommend it unless you like the marker effect a lot. But then again, if you're willing to spend so much on markers just spend the money on buying a tablet and a drawing program. Most drawing programs like SAI or ClipStudio have brushes with marker effects.

I've been using both Touch and Kurecolor, and Copic ciao markers.
I'm not too sure about Touch, but Kurecolor seems a bit cheaper. They are fulfilling my marker-needs just fine, so I would say they are ok?
All of these are refillable too; I think gurukittystudio is right, it's good to keep refillability in mind, because it makes a big difference ^^

Go with Prismacolor markers. They aren't refillable but they cost a little more than half of copics. Depending on how much you use them it could be the cheaper alternative you're looking for. If you really use the copics enough to make refills necessary, copics will be cheaper through the refills in the long run.

I've started using prismacolors and i'm pleased with them. However, for things that require blended colors or a variety of colors, I always just go with watercolors. Incredibly cheap and you can get every color you could ever want for the fraction of the price~ It may be a litter harder to control than markers, but I personally really like using watercolors. Just makes everything easier~

Copics are pretty good and I've also had experience with Touch Twin markers which in my opinion work just as good only difference I noticed was the smell that Touch has although it's not strong. I think Touch markers were made in Korea or something. Their a little cheaper than Copics and have a brush tip if you shop at Blicks.com you can get them for about 4 or 5 bucks maybe even cheaper if they do coupons. It's worth a look.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/touch-twin-brush-marker/1.3k

if you go on the blicks art store website there's something called Mepxy (give or take spelling on that one) in clearence that's pretty cheap.

I was using Promrkers for several years, they are slightly cheaper but not much.

I'm living and working in Japan these days and I have been testing out some nice markers, I will post some photos up when I get a chance ^^

Ietraset markers, 50% of the price and I love them!

Copics - http://www.graphicsdirect.co.uk/markers/copic/copic-12-sets.html594
Ietrasets - http://www.letraset.com/products/11-ProMarker-12-Set-Base-Color-Palettes/1.5k

(just realised everyone talking about Promarkers are talking about the same brand)

I've tried a bunch of different alternatives, and in terms of ink-quality, Copics and Promarkers are pretty much comparable. Copic Ciao's got nicer brush-tips, which is great if that works with your colouring style. I've found Promarkers are better for colouring larger swaths of paper without it ending up blotchy, but that may depend on your own technique.

For cheap markers, I've got a 30-set of Touch-markers, which are much, much cheaper than Copics and Promarkers, and are still decent quality. I'd say maybe start out with a cheaper set, for practise, and gradually replace them with Copics and/or Promarkers?

And as someone else said, don't go all out on heavy bristol paper, as that sucks your markers dry in a heartbeat - go for lighter paper (I do most of my marker-colouring on regular printer paper, but you might want something a bit sturdier if you're drawing comics).

My real tip for cheap, nice-looking shading, though? Buy yourself decent-quality watercolour paper and a set of watercolours. They last a long time, AND you can do similar styles of colouring as markers. You can even mix watercolours and markers, with a bit of experimenting, which is really nice.

I usually use Letraset Bleedproof marker paper for coloring with markers. It's a paper that is coated on one side, preventing the ink from bleeding through (which is likely to happen even with thick paper) and keeps the colors much better (Make sure you color on the right side, though!) Only thing I don't like is how it's so thin (70g), I prefer drawing and coloring on thicker paper, especially because it's too easy to bend the paper when erasing... anyone know if there's a thicker marker paper in this style out there?

Color pencils are cheaper.

Gouache and acrylic paints are cheaper, along with watercolor, because they last longer than markers.

There's a new brand called Concept that's pretty comparable to Copics and loads cheaper. They have a chisel tip and a fine-point tip, so no brush, but otherwise are similar in quality. I have a set of neutral grey Copics and a set of warm grey Concepts and both work great. Concept stink a bit more though, haha. You can get them at Jerry's Artarama and on Amazon for sure, I haven't looked elsewhere.

I once splurged and bout a full set of Blick watercolor markers for 250. They're fairly cheaper than copic and I'm still very happy with them today.

I was also thinking, if you want to spend even less, buy a full set of prisma (or Blick) colored pencils and a watercolor colorless blender. Looks just as good as marker and you can play around with colors more.

If you want to go the greyscale route, you can use both options I stated above, but only purchase the greyscale packs.
You can also buy a few paintbrushes and India ink. You can do a lot with just these few things and it only costs around $10. Looks very professional imo and very fun to use!

Can do this sort of thing with them (Not mine)

Very crisp and clean, works well with micron.

I was looking for the cheapest place to buy copics and came across this question....
BayleeJae has a video on youtube that compares different brands to copic markers... including the prices. https://youtu.be/aXFkRD60Iis412 I found it very informative.

Also, I just found http://www.jerrysartarama.com/208 price for copic sketch markers is currently $5.24 a marker. If you sign up for their emails or search the internet for their coupon code, they have one that you can get a 25% your order plus free shipping for orders over $59. That makes them $3.93 a marker... best price i have come across so far if you plan on spending $50 (you would need to purchase 12 markers for this coupon to apply bring your pretax total to 47.16)... and their copic ciaos regular price is $3.59 so you could get 17 of them... after coupon it would be $2.69 a marker. Not sure how long their coupon is good for... but may be something worth looking into.
Hope this helps someone !

Prismacolor Markers & Letraset Promarkers though I find Letraset Promarker sets much cheaper than Prismacolor and Copic Marker sets.

Faber Castell has a series of markers... "Pitt Artist Pens" or something similar. I had the opportunity to try them out the last weekend... They work pretty much like copics, blend well together with copics too and my only issue with them is that they have smaller tips than copics, but the colors look nice and the price seems way cheaper for a pack than what copics offer. I don't think they have a large color selection tho, so there's also that... I do plan on grabbing a pack and mixing them with my copics. In general I tend to buy 1-2 markers a month, instead of a whole set, because the price really is a bit high :c

switch to digital

Well I fell like Copic is your best choice because you can refill your markers. Now I know they are pretty pricey but I use this App/Website that can get you cheap copics in 2 weeks. Link: https://www.wish.com/c/5774d3299353777835bfe7e8?hide_login_modal=true&from_ad=pla1&gclid=CjwKEAiAmdXBBRD0hZCVkYHTl20SJACWsZj9x9fuii9SEwnQX_9b0gRbFqF4fdEiuPB2pW4hIwLkdBoCwKDw_wcB351
It is Wish you can download it on your phone too! The copics are $8 for a full set! I use Wish for almost everything I get too. The sets are the Copic Sketch and Copic Ciao full. I hope this helps and it can save you money. Im asking this for Christmas and hoping im getting it.

Alternative? hmmmm. Well a friend of mine shared this link -- https://www.facebook.com/originibiz/photos/a.287721174910431.1073741828.176263542722862/365182063831008/?type=3&theater193 --
on FB a couple of days ago and I'm lucky that I clicked it since these pens are still on SALE. Good thing I got these for myself and as a gift for a fellow artist coz these pens are ridiculously affordable but looks pretty great on my sketches. I'm surprised how it's quality turns out. The ink does not blot and there's a lot of colors to pick from. No issues whatsoever. What's crazy is that I compared its quality with the tech-pens and the other fancy pens that I have and to my surprise there's really not much a difference. I just wish though that the company that made these would make more pens in the future. I give Pen-Art a full thumbs up!

https://www.facebook.com/originibiz/photos/a.287721174910431.1073741828.176263542722862/365182063831008/?type=3&theater193

Well...Copic markers are really good. I purchased Copic Ciao because they're cheaper and work really good too. I'm not sure about other brands.

I use Spectrum Noir markers , Pro markers and Tria markers. I actually like them more then copics. The Spectrum Noirs have almost the same quality as copics and are much cheaper.
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As many have mentioned, there are a lot of cheaper alternatives. However, Copics do a lot of things very well, whereas most of the cheaper options do one or two things well but fall behind in other areas.

Like most people have said, the Prismacolor markers are a pretty solid choice if you want Copics but don't have the budget. I think the biggest shortfall for them are the nibs; they just don't have the same feel and nowhere near the same variety. The one thing the Copic Classics have going for them is the sheer amount of different nibs you can plug into those things.

If you're looking to use these markers for blending, another option are the Chameleon ColorTone pens. They are cheaper than Copics and specifically designed for blending.

We recently put together a huge interactive comparison guide on all the different types of Copics on our website. Down at the bottom you will find a section devoted to Copic alternatives:

http://colorgaia.com/copic-markers-depth-review-comparison/169

Depends on the store. I bought the packs with 24 markers for €22, packs with 6 markers for €7 and single ones for €1. Single copics are €4-5 per marker.

Ohuhu markers? On Amazon