People have been buying cheap drawing tablets powered by UC-Logic digitizers at least as early as 2006. (Aiptek was especially known for selling a large, cheap drawing tablet, the 12000U.) Back then, there were a few caveats depending on the manufacturer, including fragile pens and less-than-stellar driver software.

One thing to note is that the UC-Logic pens use a different tech than Wacom's -- they require a battery inside the pen. And it looks like they still don't have tilt senstivity. But at that price...