There's a feed store out near me that has a taco stand in the parking lot on Saturdays, and a guy I work with swears the barbacoa there beats any restaurant in town. Word gets around about these spots mostly by mouth, which is probably why they stay cheap and stay good. Places like that seem to pop up wherever there's working folks who need a quick, filling meal without spending half their paycheck.

Gulfport guy sold me a "barely used" regulator too, same story.

A $12 power strip on it as a test" is a funny way to end a week of pain. But was it really the strip that fixed it, or just fresh contact in the outlet the first time you plugged it in? A loose fit in a worn receptacle can do the same thing, and you would have "fixed" it with anything you plugged in hard. I am not saying the cable was fine, just that you swapped two things at once, the cable and the outlet connection, so you cannot pin it on one. A $4 part story sounds good until you realize you never actually proved which $4 part it was. Do you still have that cable, and did you meter it or wiggle test it to see the arc? If not, this might just be coincidence wearing a nice story.