Few items that an apparel or jewelry retailer can add to their inventories have the impulse appeal of inexpensive bracelets. Of course, women and men have worn bracelets for thousands of years; even the prehistoric ‘ice-man’ found a few years ago in the Alps wore a bracelet of woven grass. Normally throughout history people have worn the best and most expensive bracelets they could afford but gaudy costume jewelry caught on during the 1950s and has never really gone away since.The hippies taught fashion to return to the very old fashioned practice of making bracelets from wooden and ceramic beads. Beads have been used forever and have even sometimes amounted to currency. Quickly ones made of colorful plastic and other materials joined them. The friendship bracelet so popular during the nineties was merely woven nylon and cost very little.In a way the friendship bracelet and Tony Orlando’s 1970s hit ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ have help create a whole new vocabulary for Americans to voice their opinions. Ribbons of yellow and countless other colors and combinations of colors now adorn millions of autos across the country. Christian teenagers made the WWJD bracelet a million dollar industry and it is nearly always constructed of the cheapest of materials.At present the memorial and support bracelets worn by millions of Americans is a glorified rubber band with printing on it. The yellow band initiated by the Lance Armstrong Livestrong Foundation in support of cancer research kicked open the doors and the race was on. (By the way, look for an upswing in Mr. Armstrong’s bracelets sells as he just won his seventh Tour de France.) The rubber band type bracelet can be found almost anywhere with just about any sentiment expressed on it. From the jingoistic to the faux-rebellious, from smiley faces to pentagrams if it can be capsulated in five words or less and printed on a rubber band it probably exists. If someone happens to think up an as yet unexpressed emotion it is easy and inexpensive to have custom bracelets made.Naturally support bracelets aren’t the only inexpensive bracelets people buy. The vast majority of bracelets purchased aren’t meant to voice any kind of message. They are purchased because of attractive styling and good value. Almost any apparel or accessories merchant could find some style of inexpensive bracelet that would match their clientele.Bracelets are a product whose wholesalers are fairly friendly to small businesses. They are accustomed to customers who aren’t going to order a thousand bracelets and so normally have small minimum orders. Sometimes they require just a handful of items.Starting with some the more basic styles, there are wholesalers offering a variety of simple women’s bracelets for around $2.50 each. The bracelets feature qualities such fake silver interlocked dolphins and artificial gemstones. These bracelets could easily sell for $5 or $6. Simple bead and cord bracelets can be purchased wholesale for as little as $1.75 but some made of better materials are more expensive but still very affordable. Beautiful wooden hoop bracelets are available for between $3 and $5 each depending on the style. Intricately carved and well finished these could sell three or four times their cost.Let’s revisit the rubber band bracelets. Official licensed Lance Armstrong support bracelets are available online in boxes of 100 for $170 and in some places a little less. A retailer thinking of purchasing Livestrong bracelets should be very leery of any wholesaler offering the bracelets for much less than that. There are a lot of imitation unlicensed Lance Armstrong bracelets out there and you don’t want them. The last thing any respectable retailer wants is to be involved in something that steals money from kids with cancer.Silicon support type bracelets not associated with the cycling star are less expensive. Several wholesalers offer boxes of 100 bracelets ranging in price from $90 a box to about $180. Prices vary depending on the popularity of the message and the difficulty involved in printing. The margin on some seems a little small but the investment is small and shipping cost nearly negligible.There are relatively inexpensive bracelets to match nearly any niche market. For example, a wholesaler offers wide ’silver’ bracelets with skulls and barbed wire patterns for $3 to $4 apiece. Elaborate bracelet and ring combinations commonly referred to as slave bracelets are very popular with young adults and can be found online in a dazzling array of styles for between $10 and $20 each.Art Mickelwraith is the author of the Wholesale Buyer’s Guide at TopTenWholesale.com. He can be reached at artmicklewraith@gmail.com.