Why do people keep bidding 5 GC per 1 mil population? (Little Upsilon)

Seriously, I don't get it. What does bidding 5 GC on the cash market accomplish other than screw someone else out of getting the population for 4? I even see people bidding 6 when there are a dozen or more offers from simcountry.com at 5. The only think I can think of is that people are bidding 4, then 5 and retracting the 5 bid at the last minute to win it at 4. Otherwise it's just petty.

Maybe 6 bids are coming from the same person.

Multi account players.

In my experience, the population you get from the GM contains a higher % of LLWs than buying from a player. Back in the day, it was better to spend the extra GC to get a decent variety. Having said that, my experience does go back a few years but i doubt its changed a great deal. Proof that its still the same is in the bids you have mentioned.....

Some time ago, there were few GM offers of pop compared to now. At times I could get the max 8GC all day every day. Unlimited amounts you could sell each day, and no real adverse effect to your economy. People would even come into chat, begging for pop, and if they were your mates you could give them 1M for like 2 coins. You can imagine, raiding was a good business to be in and it sure made for a lot of fun as feds stuck up for each other, and players retaliated for their friends.

This has changed with selling pop severely hurting your economy and being able to raid very difficult. But I still believe some people would rather see their money going to other players than to the game. It may not be the most economical way but it the best community orientated play. And yes, I believe Stuart is right about the balance of people received still being different.

I had surmised that the mix might be different, but I didn't know. I think I'll spend the extra gc or 2 to get a better mix, if this is true.