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Cloth covered wire is pricy, period. It hasn't been used much, if at all in decades. The market for it is limited and it is costly to manufacture, unlike modern "plastic" insulated wire.
I collect antique radios, many of which used cloth covered hookup wire and line cords. There is no such thing as "cheap" when it comes to that stuff. The prices on larger gauges used in automobiles goes up exponentially.