I've used a fair bit of tulipwood over the years, mainly for the doors and face frames of kitchen cabinets. It's fairly cheap, machines nicely, and paints well.
I no longer really use it, however.
The main problem with tulipwood is that it can be very soft, and in high usage areas such as kitchens it will dent very easily, no matter how good a paint job has been applied.
For this reason I now use beech or sycamore for painted work if solid wood is required, but in most cases use MR MDF, which is a lot cheaper even than tulipwood, and if used correctly is a better material for the job.
I now only use tulipwood for mouldings and cornice, for which it is ideal.
I would expect to pay around £20 per cube for 1"
Cheers
Dan