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I have and use Copic Ciao markers a lot of the time June. I am no expert and I'm sure there are others on the forum who can tell you a lot more than I can, but I find them absolutely fabulous. They are an alcohol based pen that dries pretty well on contact with paper and card, they bleed into the card but that's a good thing or so I'm told. I use smooth white cs from the Papermill with mine and have it on good authority that this is a pretty good surface to use.
There are over 300 colours to choose from so I can't give you much advice about which ones to pick as it is a matter of taste but make sure you buy a colourless blender as it helps to take down colours and give shading effects.
Cost comes into it of course and these I can buy for £2 each whereas some of the others can be as much as £5 each. It all depends whether or not you want to refill them. I haven't had mine long enough to give you an idea of how long they last and again that would depend on how much you use them. There are sites on the net that include step by step how-to's with these markers. I think they are a great investment.

A good site is run by one of the top Copic artists and can be found at http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com
I hope that is a wee bit helpful and I'm sure others will add to it as they read the thread.