I haven't paid for all that many lightning cables period, since they tended to be included with most devices that needed them, and aside from some strain reliefs that I've added myself in the form of heat shrink, they've been largely reliable too.
This was usually due to lint clogging up the port on the device. You could easily remove it with a toothpick and then everything was back in working order. Took just a few seconds at most.
