Auto Mag Corporation was short-lived for several reasons. The design team, headed by Mark Lovendale, took the AutoMag pistol from a fully functional machined chrome-moly steel prototype designed by Harry Sanford & Max Gera and created a more complicated and less reliable cast stainless steel version. The new design team was convinced the Auto Mag pistol was not ready for production and could not be produced at a profit. The design team believed that even with the correct finished design, the wholesale price of the pistol had to be greatly increased or the company would go bankrupt. The design team was unable to convince Sanford, and they all resigned. The pistol was then refined by the remaining staff, and put into production. Unfortunately the expensive manufacturing processes and materials, and need for many parts to be produced by sub-contractors made the gun unprofitable resulting in bankruptcy of the original company.