Can you buy things "for cheap"?

The first line of this news story says:

Call it space grave robbery for a cause: imagine scavenging defunct communication satellites for their valuable parts and recycling them to build brand new ones for cheap.

I've heard people use that "for cheap" construction before, but thought it was dialectal (mid-to-northern English). I was surprised to see it in an NZ publication.

Why does that almost pass grammatical muster, whereas "for expensive" (for example) really stinks?

Solution 1:

Perhaps it's a spin off of for free, such as

If you can't get it for free, at least get it for cheap.

It could be understood to mean

get it for [a] cheap [price]

In either case, it is colloquial at best. I have heard it as a slang expression in the US.

As to why it is less jarring than for expensive, I don't know. As an antonym, for dear might be arguably more acceptable (if only because it maintains the abbreviated, single syllable style), although I can't say I have heard it in the US.