squished ponies?

[Aurora]

I would contact the seller- don't threaten, but firmly state what you said here. That the ponies were squished and very dirty, that you believe she mis-represented them by not mentioning the flaws and let her know that in the future, she should be sure to put more and more ACCURATE pictures. Mention that you would not have paid as much for the lot if you had known about their quality.
It is possible the seller was just inattentive. My mom once listed a Hollywood that was littered with tiny chew marks- she honestly didn't see them, but I picked up the pony and was horrified! So she might not have known better, but she should be ready to apologize/partially refund for her mistake and learn an important lesson about being a seller.
I'm glad they popped back, or at least are on the road to recovery! And where do you get a personal pony caretaker? He sounds awesome!

[Pinkie21]

Yay!!  Glad to hear you got your ponies back in shape.  ^_^  Hooray for boiling water!  LOL, I had a bunch of G3's at the bottom of a box of childhood books, and it took a nice bath in boiling water and a bit of pushing around to get them back into the shape they were in originally lol.  Poor Pepperberry got it the worst  
As for you wondering if you were nitpicky about the description saying "seaponys" instead of a sea pony, I don't think it's nitpicky at all!  I always believe it's really important to get the description completely accurate (as in, also spell-checking and checking for grammatical errors as well).  So I don't think you're being nitpicky at all
I know I'm being an echo here, but I definitely agree that it might be a good idea to contact the seller and just inform them of the squished ponies.  If they did get squished in transit, then the seller (if he's/she's an honest seller) can tell you, and then you can take it up with the postal service if you wish ^_^ 

[Eluluu]

i feel your pain hun, i had a bad time with a seller on ebay last year too and dropped almost $175 on two of their lots, maybe more, i dont remember. in the pics they looked good but in the flesh theyre all horribly stained. yay for lemon lots! i should have contacted the seller too but im more of a passifist. =P at least the pile of flutter wings werent splashed with the mystery liquid everything else was. and now i have a good 15 or so ponies in my bait box.
 
so yeah learn from my mistake, dont just take what you get, send them a message and let them know their condition was less than satisfactory. who knows they might be a nice person and actually DO something about it.
 
edit: i just remembered i have a VERY flat Sunspot that somehow ended up under a box of books for who knows how many years lol i told my sister she could keep her cause i didnt know how to fix her (and to be honest i always kinda hated her... blegh orange) i may have to ask her where she is so i can try the boiling trick.

[Elisto]

Yeah, boiling or just hot water helps! Just if you do put them all in a hot water bath together, don't put any together with chartreuse hair. It will bleed! As for the black marks, before you go to the acetone, have you tried just scrubbing them?

But yeah, do contact the seller about all those issues you mentioned. That's not nitpicky at all!

[sabathamk]

I had a couple of ponies that wouldn't stand... filled them with boiling water after removing the tail, had them sitting like that until the water was no longer hot but had cooled completely, and they were fixed!!!

[CrimsonEtClover]

thanks for all of your support and advise<3

I shot an ebay message off to the seller tonight on a whim - I didn't threaten or ask for anything, just informed them... I didn't go into how I've been able to improve some of them, which now i feel is sort of dishonest (It wasn't intentionally left out, I was just blarging off every problem i had had, and I wasn't thinking so much about the *fixing* I've already done - and honestly, I shouldn't have had to do it, right?)

She wrote back right away, and questioned why I took so long contacting her about it (I just couldn't muster up the courage, plus, i was busy trying to fix them!) and she also mentioned that she outsources her shipping, so that is something she can "handle from her end" and asked if the box looked smashed... I responded with more details, (and mentioned that I've been experimenting with boiling water, and that it's been quite a process working on them so far, but that I believe they are all going to be fixable as far as their shape, but not necessarily the marks) so we'll see what happens next in the Saga of the Squished Ponies!

and I wanted to add, that she didn't seem rude, she seemed pleasant but perhaps a bit curt, but I totally understand that!