When is the WoW Forever auction house cheapest during the day?

Across PvP Horde EU, prices run cheapest around 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET), 6.3% under the daily average, and dearest around 04:00 UTC (05:00 CET), 14.6% over. The pattern is read from the hourly price of the market's largest positions over the last few weeks, each hour against the day around it.

How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?

Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.

How much history does the pattern need?

Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning PvP Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.

Best hours to buy and sell

Pick a market and an item. Every hour of the day shows its typical price, lowest buyout and listings, and the page names the cheapest hours to buy, the dearest to sell, and what the gap is worth after the 5 percent cut.

On PvP Horde EU, Scaled Leather Headband is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 151% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Horde EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/horde/eu

1MarketEach house keeps its own hours.2WindowDays of scans the hours are averaged over.3ItemKept while you switch market or window; type another below.

Item

Best hours to buy

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 CET · index 0.819 · typical 1g 47s 65c

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 1.291 · typical 2g 48s 36c

Spread after the 5% cut

+151%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

Too early

Too early to trust: the thinnest hour has 2 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Scaled Leather Headbandby hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	1g 99s 59c	1g 1s 25c	21	1.020	4
01:00	02:00	2g 5s 6c	1g 21s	19	1.055	4
02:00	03:00	1g 60s	95s 75c	19	0.853	4
03:00	04:00	2g 1s 42c	1g 19s 50c	16	1.049	4
04:00	05:00	1g 67s	1g 17s	21	0.932	2
05:00	06:00	1g 95s 34c	99s 50c	11	0.964	2
06:00	07:00	1g 46s 67c	1g 1s	13	0.802	3
07:00	08:00	1g 66s 24c	97s 50c	12	0.884	4
08:00	09:00	1g 55s 35c	1g 24s 25c	14	0.820	4
09:00	10:00	1g 67s 24c	1g 12s 75c	15	0.909	4
10:00	11:00	1g 76s 63c	1g 14s 75c	15	0.988	4
11:00	12:00	1g 66s 36c	99s 50c	16	0.926	4
12:00	13:00	1g 60s 13c	99s 25c	16	0.886	4
13:00	14:00	1g 42s 50c	96s	17	0.796	4
14:00	15:00	1g 40s 32c	87s 20c	15	0.776	5
15:00	16:00	1g 87s 69c	90s 50c	21	1.077	4
16:00	17:00	2g 50s 70c	1g 39s 20c	19	1.223	5
17:00	18:00	2g 71s 87c	1g 49s	13	1.416	5
18:00	19:00	2g 22s 50c	1g 29s	16	1.233	3
19:00	20:00	2g 2s 48c	99s 33c	18	1.136	3
20:00	21:00	2g 26s 68c	1g 71s 25c	16	1.166	4
21:00	22:00	1g 81s	1g	31	1.107	2
22:00	23:00	1g 76s 34c	99s 50c	22	0.993	2
23:00	00:00	1g 96s 85c	1g 7s	19	0.990	4

Under 1.000 is a cheap hour to buy; over 1.000 a good hour to sell. Days counts how many days that hour was scanned in the window. The same figures as JSON: /v1/timing/forever.pvp.horde.eu/10406 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.994	1.083	5
01:00	02:00	0.965	1.025	5
02:00	03:00	0.961	1.048	4
03:00	04:00	1.003	0.844	4
04:00	05:00	1.146	0.838	4
05:00	06:00	0.994	0.814	3
06:00	07:00	1.025	0.809	4
07:00	08:00	1.017	0.764	5
08:00	09:00	1.009	0.852	6
09:00	10:00	1.037	0.823	6
10:00	11:00	1.013	0.917	6
11:00	12:00	1.024	0.951	6
12:00	13:00	1.004	1.005	6
13:00	14:00	1.002	1.077	6
14:00	15:00	1.001	1.088	6
15:00	16:00	0.973	1.157	6
16:00	17:00	0.994	1.210	6
17:00	18:00	0.993	1.052	6
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.155	4
19:00	20:00	0.937	1.144	4
20:00	21:00	0.987	1.090	5
21:00	22:00	0.961	1.115	4
22:00	23:00	1.026	1.107	3
23:00	00:00	0.985	1.031	5

Each hour is indexed against the 24 hours around it, item by item across the market's largest positions, then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. For the day-of-week pattern, see market structure.

▸How this is worked out

Every hourly price is divided by the same item's average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting over the month does not make one end of the day look dear. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest; the spread buys at the cheap window's lowest buyout and sells at the dear window's typical price less the cut. Forever's history restarts at launch, so a live market's pattern never includes beta scans.

Common questions

When is the WoW Forever auction house cheapest during the day?: Across PvP Horde EU, prices run cheapest around 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET), 6.3% under the daily average, and dearest around 04:00 UTC (05:00 CET), 14.6% over. The pattern is read from the hourly price of the market's largest positions over the last few weeks, each hour against the day around it.
What is the best time of day to buy and sell Scaled Leather Headband?: On PvP Horde EU, Scaled Leather Headband is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 151% after the 5 percent cut.
How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?: Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.
How much history does the pattern need?: Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning PvP Horde EU through the night fills the gaps.