Then what you need is NOT a cheap price per diaper. You have to look at it as a cost per day.
Cheap diapers need to be changed much more often. Those extra changes drive up their overall cost. Instead, go with a diaper that has a high per diaper price, but needs very few changes. Overall you will actually spend less money this way.
I personally use one betterdry/crinklz diaper for the late evening and overnight, then a second one for during the day at work. It's changing just often enough to avoid rashes or smells. Best of all, it only costs me about $3 per day. That's the lowest cost per day I've ever had for diapers, and these are premium diapers I can fully trust to not leak.
I think I'd have to agree with that. ABDL diapers seem to go for a premium price. The crinklz (at least through NS) are priced more like a "variety option on our standard diaper", rather than a "oh you want that, it's gonna cost you!" unnecessary markup.
Adding print like that has to add a little cost, but it's just the shell (after the R&D is paid for), they just change out a roll in the machine and go, it's not like a huge additional expense every time they make a run of it, maybe another 2 cents per diaper, tops. It's nice to see them "passing the savings" on to their customers rather than gouging us for something novel.