Ok I expect to Get Hell from this Thread. Yeah everyone is a scrap metal guru any Idiot can Do it Just ask anyone.
Not going to give you hell but I think it's an indisputable fact that like some other enterprises, the price of entry into the field is very, very, low. Anybody with a pickup truck is pretty much already set up to become a new competitor. That's not to say that just anybody will be able to optimize their earning potential, but the point is, they don't have to, in order to take business away from the guys who are already practicing at a professional level.

Also, as Mick points out it's a business where you're constantly at odds with people's own ability to do what they want to have done. I've seen it in the snow plowing business. Back in 93, we had the "Storm of the Century", and though we were primarily doing commercial accounts, we got dozens of calls for residential work. "Can you come out and plow my driveway?" The following year, we had a similar storm, and didn't get half as many calls. I believe that was due to the fact that everybody and/or their neighbor went out and bought a blower. The work was still there; people just chose to do it themselves rather than pay somebody else to do it.