Sounds like you got 15 good years out of a cheap die, that's not really a broken product so much as normal wear. Buying two sets is fine but honestly a die snapping in half after all that time seems like you got your money's worth. Maybe the penny was the real problem, not the dice.

Sat through something like that in a pizza shop once, four of us going back and forth about one sentence in Slaughterhouse-Five. Kurt said Billy was "unstuck" in time, Jake said he was just plain crazy, and we spent an hour on it while the guy behind the counter kept staring at us. We never did settle it, and I still bring it up at parties when I want to watch people get mad. Video calls kind of kill that vibe, because somebody can just mute themselves and check out. In person you had to sit there and take it, and that made people care more.

The line about dialing in a hole twice made me laugh because that was me for way too long. I fought the same battle on a fixture job a couple years back and finally borrowed a coaxial from a buddy just to prove him wrong, and of course it worked great. The setup is the part that scares people off, but once you do it a time or two it's faster than fighting a mag base in a tight spot. Mine paid for itself on the very next job when I didn't scrap a plate. Welcome to the club, better late than never.