because its not scrap steel… its a car… and alot of proccessing and time needs to be had before you would get 1500lbs of steel… that and they are the market… if you dont want 200 bux for the car. they know that they are the only way to get rid of the car, so they can offer you whatever they want…
besides, if they offered him say 1k… what would stop you from going out and buying several 2-500 dollar cars that are “running” and just junking them for 1k…