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

Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% 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 Normal Alliance 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 Normal Alliance EU, Zircon Band is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 107% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 0.909 · typical 89s 49c

Best hours to sell

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 CET · index 1.173 · typical 1g 22s 5c

Spread after the 5% cut

+107%

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.

Zircon Bandby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	94s 50c	63s 50c	33	0.944	4
01:00	02:00	99s 83c	65s	32	0.974	3
02:00	03:00	92s 48c	40s 67c	39	0.975	3
03:00	04:00	93s 61c	54s 75c	30	0.939	4
04:00	05:00	99s 50c	46s	41	1.015	2
05:00	06:00	1g 24s 75c	75s	18	1.168	2
06:00	07:00	90s 33c	48s	26	0.954	3
07:00	08:00	1g 5s 33c	61s	19	1.044	4
08:00	09:00	88s 42c	57s	19	0.881	4
09:00	10:00	89s 28c	49s 75c	21	0.904	4
10:00	11:00	90s 78c	61s 33c	18	0.941	3
11:00	12:00	90s 63c	60s 67c	20	0.935	3
12:00	13:00	90s 66c	55s 67c	20	0.936	3
13:00	14:00	91s 78c	59s 67c	21	0.944	3
14:00	15:00	91s	48s	24	0.936	3
15:00	16:00	91s 45c	55s 67c	26	0.942	3
16:00	17:00	94s 69c	44s 67c	28	0.976	3
17:00	18:00	1g 2s 95c	52s	29	1.051	3
18:00	19:00	1g 12s 85c	45s	31	1.163	3
19:00	20:00	86s 81c	46s 67c	20	0.863	3
20:00	21:00	1g 41s 67c	96s 75c	23	1.351	4
21:00	22:00	1g 27s 39c	67s 25c	27	1.221	4
22:00	23:00	97s 8c	61s	24	0.947	3
23:00	00:00	1g	63s 75c	23	0.998	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.normal.alliance.eu/11967 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.983	1.172	5
01:00	02:00	0.998	1.160	4
02:00	03:00	1.064	1.081	4
03:00	04:00	1.022	1.010	5
04:00	05:00	1.004	1.008	3
05:00	06:00	1.042	0.760	3
06:00	07:00	1.029	0.920	3
07:00	08:00	1.017	0.883	4
08:00	09:00	1.012	0.887	4
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.904	5
10:00	11:00	1.021	0.811	4
11:00	12:00	1.016	0.873	4
12:00	13:00	1.011	0.910	4
13:00	14:00	0.995	0.967	4
14:00	15:00	1.006	1.011	4
15:00	16:00	0.982	1.042	4
16:00	17:00	1.000	1.002	4
17:00	18:00	0.963	1.084	4
18:00	19:00	0.953	1.127	4
19:00	20:00	0.979	1.031	3
20:00	21:00	0.957	1.128	4
21:00	22:00	0.963	1.131	4
22:00	23:00	0.980	1.087	3
23:00	00:00	0.987	1.011	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 Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% 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 Zircon Band?: On Normal Alliance EU, Zircon Band is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 107% 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 Normal Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.