poster_boy - 7:19 pm on Feb 9, 2007 (gmt 0)

Minimum Bids aren't directly reflective of competition for a keyword. It cannot at all be assumed that if there are no ads shown for a query, or if the keyword is unlikely to have ever received searches, that the allowable bid for these keywords will be a penny.

Minimum CPC bids are determined by a given keyword's Quality Score - and if a keyword has minimal historic data (like "Placeholder Keyword") - what Google anticipates it's Quality Score will be...