Oh gosh, if we're talking grimy pony horror stories, I have a ton of those haha. Probably the worst was my Barnacle, who was supposed to be just a bait-y boy with normal blue pony discoloration and a haircut. I figured I could easily give him a nice sun soak to brighten him up and rehair him. Turns out the seller neglected to mention they were lying about their 'smoke free home and items', because he positively reeked when he got here, and the discoloration was not in fact normal discoloration from age, but yellowing from smoke exposure.
He's since been through a cat litter soak, two sun soaks and multiple baths and he no longer smells like an ashtray. Looks a lot prettier, too! All he needs now is his new mane and tail and he'll be looking quite handsome.
Then of course there is the constant horror of one of the booths at our local antique store taping paper tags with wet pen ink on them directly to the ponies' necks instead of using hang tags, resulting in otherwise beautiful ponies with what could have been preventable ink stains on their necks.
And my personal favorite: the horror of realizing that little seven year old me had the choice to get either a Furby or Munchy at an antique store when I was visiting my grandparents one season. Guess which one I chose
Saving the best for last though, I have another buying horror story that was a bit of an honest mix-up, but the panic at the time was real. During lockdown in 2020, I had bought a lovely Salty from someone on Mercari. He shipped and I was eagerly awaiting his arrival. The box finally came and I excitedly opened it up to find...an entire lot of different ponies that I hadn't ordered. I was a little befuddled, but I quickly contacted the seller and it turns out that they were shipping out two boxes (my Salty and another person's lot) and accidentally switched the shipping labels. The seller was an absolute sweetheart about everything and apologized profusely, and thankfully, the other person who got my Salty immediately agreed to ship him back. So I shipped the pony lot back to the seller, and once he arrived back to them, they shipped me my Salty!
But the saga of Salty, lost at sea, doesn't end there. Salty was finally on his way to me, but the tracking stalled on the day he was supposed to be out for delivery, and then got put back in transit. I know mistakes with tracking happen sometimes, so I didn't think much of it. As I was driving into town that day, however, I saw our mail delivery person's truck on a tow truck, heading to a repair shop. Apparently they'd broken down while out delivering packages, and Salty was on the vehicle when it broke down, so he had to be transferred to another delivery truck and was delayed. He arrived safe and sound the next day!
All's well that ends well and everyone involved was extremely nice about everything, but boy, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't anxious for the fate of my poor Salty during the whole ordeal.
In the middle of summer no less, we roasted!
Even if I had been a teenager you still dont take advantage of a kids lack of knowledge for money. 
