Gunspot replaced the for sale forms on subguns. It is owned by an NFA dealer called Midwest Tactical.

Anyone can put guns for auction or sale on the website. Most of the guns listed are from midwest but some are from other dealers.

Midwest is the only dealer I have seen listing machine guns via the auction function.

Has anyone here bought one of the auction machine guns?

I'm just trying to figure out if these auctions are worth messing with. I know midwest is reputable dealer, but I think the auctions may not be real, or more of a marketing thing?

What aroused the concern?
I put a low ball but not insane bid (7.5k, so $500-1k below current market) on a fairly used looking SWD M11 a few days before auction end. Its a proxy bid so like ebay you just put your max and the computer keeps rebidding for you as others place bids up to your set maximum. There was no reserve price. The auction ended with a last min bid taking it up from $6.1k to exactly $7,555. So it was won by a bid of $5 greater than mine. Now, one day later, that same gun appears to be listed in the for sale section of that same site - again listed by midwest.

Thoughts? I like the site in that it seems the auctions sometimes go for good prices - but not if the auctions are not real. The site site is very poorly designed - one of the factors that may be depressing the prices.

Is this a site that should be avoided? Maybe a secret reserve - they have someone bid it up last min and buy it if it doesn't reach some threashold? Can midwest see the amount of bidders set maximums? Maybe they are just hoping to keep it listed and relisted until someone hits the buy it now price that is active for the entire auction duration ( in this case $9.9k - very high). I suppose they just could have it cross listed in the for sale section but forgot to take it down - but looks like it was listed there yesterday morning - so hours before the end of the auction.

https://gunspot.com/listings/detail/6877/swd-m11-9mm-transferable-machine-gun/

The simplest and most logical explanation is usually the right one.  I think OP already has it figured out.  The real question is what the auction company will do about it...if anything.  My guess is that the auction company is already aware of the issue, they just choose to ignore it.

Midwest owns gunspot/subguns/machinguncentral. So the seller is the auction company.

Edit: seems a bit suspicious...

I picked up a very nice SP1 conversion last fall for $15,200. The auctions are real.

I recently bought an M2 Carbine from MWT through an auction bid on Gunspot.  The transaction went great and the item transferred and shipped quickly.  I also bought an excellent HK93 from one of their auctions.  I feel like both were great deals and I am comfortable with bidding on other items in the future

My guess is the auction bidder decided not to honor their bid so they relisted the item.

Like someone mentioned I think it is owned and run by MWT.
Though that probably doesn't mean everything sold there is owned by MWT.

Lastly if you contact MWT about the item for auction, likely they will be selling it lower price.

Get on there email list that goes out every Thursday morning, they post deals that are thousands less than what they list on the website. It’s basically a list of guns they are having trouble selling or need to move quickly.

Never bought from their auction site but did buy a m11 from MWT and the transaction was smooth and the employees I talked with were friendly.

I hate Frank for killing subguns after buying it and promising not to change anything.  Now I'm stuck coming here for NFA discussions, which has a lot of downsides.

That alone makes me not want to ever buy anything from that greasy dude. And it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he outbids you himself to keep you from getting a deal.

There are much better dealers out there if you want to pay market value. Like Ruben mendiola

Snugbus is very good and getting better as former BCRs find their way back. TJ has done a great job updating the site. It feels like the old subguns.

I have bought from Midwest but would never think of selling there.
IMO they are not interested in maximizing sales prices.
They would rather have full commission on a 10,000 sale than 0% of a 11,000 unsold item for example.

I haven't checked it out in a while. The NFA content and old school knowledge was lacking last time i checked. So we will see

They have an SP89 listed for $12,000.

Yeah.. i saw that. If it sells i think it's time to list my SP89's and cash out. lol

MWT set their own prices.. They don't seem to mind sitting on some stuff since I've seen some in their inventory for a long time.

Also I believe they are trying to skew the market. If you enter get their deals sheet, they always sell it fit cheaper than what they listed on GunSpot.

I bought from him before but would not again. Won a no reserve auction on GB that ended lower than he probably wanted, so a few days later I got an email that it “had already sold and we forgot to take it off GB, but we have this other one priced for a little more if you want it.”

At least back then he was more of a broker and didn’t have the items on hand to answer questions and would frequently misrepresent what he had. Ex.- calling an sp1 an m16.

I was wondering the same thing as I bid on a "no reserve" Sten about a month ago. Erb tube, welds really didn't look very good, has some abomination of an ak stock. The welds were bad enough that I wasn't willing to go beyond $6000 for it. I can't remember what it finally ended up at, somewhere around $6500. So I was still in the market at the beginning of this week and gave Midwest a call to see if they had any stens coming in. Guy on the phone told me they did and he would email me some pictures. Of course, the pictures he sent over were of the same Sten I was bidding on a month ago with a price of $8500. Instantly made me want to not do business with them.

On 2 mG I called him about he had said it got sold already.. They were at reasonable prices I would have paid for.. but it kind of turned me off from buying from him. Plus his prices are always inflated.

I had another person i bought a SMG and he told me how Ruben lowballed someone who didn't know any different. This is hearsay so I don't know if it is true.

When you own the auction house, it’s easy to shill bid your auctions without consequence. No thanks.

What a piece of shit. How did you handle that? I would have demanded the item I won at the hammer price.

Bought the other one ??. Won an HK RR and bought a double pushpin instead. Was really messed up because they took payment on the one that I won and then told me they didn’t have it over a month later.