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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 12.3% 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 US 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 US, Fine Longbow is cheapest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 29% after the 5 percent cut.

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

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

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 Pacific · index 0.922 · typical 74s 59c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 1.093 · typical 93s 4c

Spread after the 5% cut

+29%

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.

Fine Longbowby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	78s 80c	76s	17	0.953	3
01:00	17:00	78s	77s 50c	17	0.950	2
02:00	18:00	77s 67c	73s	14	0.930	3
03:00	19:00	76s 25c	68s 25c	12	0.913	4
04:00	20:00	81s 4c	72s	12	0.972	4
05:00	21:00	66s 47c	65s	17	0.881	2
06:00	22:00	83s 96c	75s 25c	14	1.013	4
07:00	23:00	82s 50c	80s	12	0.994	3
08:00	00:00	84s 33c	71s 67c	9	1.070	3
09:00	01:00	1g 4s 80c	97s 60c	7	1.171	5
10:00	02:00	90s	82s 80c	8	1.038	5
11:00	03:00	88s 87c	79s	10	1.029	5
12:00	04:00	89s	80s 60c	12	1.041	5
13:00	05:00	87s 11c	72s 20c	12	1.016	5
14:00	06:00	88s 13c	73s 80c	13	1.036	5
15:00	07:00	84s 67c	73s 75c	14	1.051	4
16:00	08:00	83s 72c	80s 25c	12	0.994	4
17:00	09:00	86s 13c	77s 50c	12	1.023	4
18:00	10:00	84s 42c	72s 25c	13	1.006	4
19:00	11:00	89s	77s 25c	12	1.048	4
20:00	12:00	86s 67c	77s 75c	11	1.011	4
21:00	13:00	81s	76s 25c	13	0.956	4
22:00	14:00	74s 67c	70s 33c	12	0.951	3
23:00	15:00	79s 75c	76s 25c	13	0.954	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.us/11304 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.047	1.000	4
01:00	17:00	1.123	0.870	3
02:00	18:00	1.067	0.822	5
03:00	19:00	1.023	1.059	5
04:00	20:00	1.007	1.054	5
05:00	21:00	1.010	1.097	3
06:00	22:00	0.990	1.126	5
07:00	23:00	0.984	1.194	3
08:00	00:00	0.986	1.150	4
09:00	01:00	1.005	1.107	5
10:00	02:00	0.977	1.108	5
11:00	03:00	0.970	1.056	5
12:00	04:00	0.959	1.070	5
13:00	05:00	0.950	1.062	5
14:00	06:00	0.968	1.051	5
15:00	07:00	1.048	0.964	4
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.892	4
17:00	09:00	0.973	0.853	4
18:00	10:00	1.010	0.857	4
19:00	11:00	0.978	0.877	4
20:00	12:00	0.977	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.981	0.931	4
22:00	14:00	0.991	0.931	3
23:00	15:00	1.005	0.969	4

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 US, prices run cheapest around 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 12.3% 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 Fine Longbow?: On PvP Horde US, Fine Longbow is cheapest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 29% 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 US through the night fills the gaps.