How do I fix dried-out marker tips?

For Copics it's usually worth trying to revive them since they're pricey. The easiest thing is to soak the tip in a little cup of the marker's own ink or rubbing alcohol for like 15-30 minutes to rehydrate it, then test it out on scrap paper. If that doesn't work, you can buy refill bottles and replace the ink, but at that point you might as well check if Copic makes replacement nibs since swapping those out is sometimes easier than messing with refills. Either way beats dropping money on new markers if you've got a few lying around.

I'll be straight with you - if they're Copics, yeah, they're worth saving. Those things cost a fortune and dried-out tips are actually pretty fixable most of the time. The soaking method the other person mentioned works, but let me give you the fuller picture since I've had to do this with my kid's art supplies more times than I'd like to admit.

The soaking approach is solid. Get a shallow dish or even just a bottle cap, pour in some of the actual marker ink if you've got refill bottles (Copic sells these), or use rubbing alcohol if you don't. Drop that tip in there and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. Don't just dunk and yank - give it time to rehydrate. After soaking, scribble on some scrap paper to get the flow going again. Sometimes you gotta repeat this a couple times if the tip's really crusty. The trick is not to be impatient - let the solvent do the work.

If soaking doesn't fully resurrect them, you've got the refill option. Copic makes refill bottles and replacement nibs if the tip itself is actually damaged rather than just dried out. But honestly, most of the time it's just dehydration. Store them tips-down from now on if you want to avoid this headache again. Caps off? That's your problem right there. It's worth the 20 minutes of soaking before you toss them.

The soaking method definitely works, but if you want a quicker fix you can also try just reversing the tip - flip it end-to-end so the dry side faces down and let it sit overnight, which sometimes redistributes the ink inside the marker. If those don't work, Copic actually sells replacement nibs pretty cheap compared to replacing whole markers, so that's worth considering too. Since you've had them a few years, it might also be worth grabbing a bottle of Copic ink refill while you're at it, which'll get them back in rotation faster than waiting for soaking to work.

The tip-flipping trick is solid and worth trying first since it takes zero effort, but honestly if that doesn't work after a day or two just go ahead and soak them. I've had better luck soaking in the actual marker ink rather than alcohol - grab a bottle of the refill ink from Copic if you have it, or even just the ink from another marker of the same color. Takes like 20 minutes and usually brings them back to life, which is way better than dropping $6-7 on a new marker.