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), 3.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (18:00 Pacific), 4.5% 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, Chrome Ring is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 205% 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

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 Pacific · index 0.956 · typical 93s 70c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 1.069 · typical 1g 3s 36c

Spread after the 5% cut

+205%

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

Confidence

provisional

Provisional: the thinnest hour has 3 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days; 10 makes it settled.

Chrome Ringby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 4s 56c	50s	49	1.044	4
01:00	17:00	1g 6s 47c	58s 33c	41	1.052	3
02:00	18:00	1g 1s 57c	51s 20c	40	1.006	5
03:00	19:00	99s 40c	51s 80c	42	0.984	5
04:00	20:00	1g 17c	44s 60c	48	0.997	5
05:00	21:00	90s 60c	24s	70	0.973	3
06:00	22:00	1g 2s 38c	43s 40c	55	1.017	5
07:00	23:00	94s 78c	44s	56	0.967	4
08:00	00:00	93s 25c	28s	59	0.981	4
09:00	01:00	95s 1c	37s	46	0.962	5
10:00	02:00	93s 16c	35s 20c	49	0.948	5
11:00	03:00	94s 1c	30s 80c	45	0.960	5
12:00	04:00	93s 92c	30s 60c	44	0.960	5
13:00	05:00	93s 51c	28s 60c	40	0.958	5
14:00	06:00	93s 11c	27s 80c	36	0.960	5
15:00	07:00	92s 89c	27s 20c	32	0.963	5
16:00	08:00	92s 74c	26s 60c	33	0.968	5
17:00	09:00	98s 53c	26s 80c	39	1.025	5
18:00	10:00	1g 4s 35c	26s 60c	42	1.077	5
19:00	11:00	1g 7s 20c	26s 80c	46	1.106	5
20:00	12:00	99s 39c	45s 17c	40	0.995	6
21:00	13:00	1g 7s 7c	40s 83c	42	1.073	6
22:00	14:00	1g 6c	28s 50c	48	1.016	4
23:00	15:00	1g 3s 35c	49s 80c	43	1.010	5

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/11983 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.011	1.021	4
01:00	17:00	1.019	0.986	4
02:00	18:00	1.045	0.943	6
03:00	19:00	1.027	1.019	6
04:00	20:00	0.984	1.075	6
05:00	21:00	0.964	1.099	4
06:00	22:00	0.965	1.126	6
07:00	23:00	1.007	1.116	4
08:00	00:00	1.033	1.054	5
09:00	01:00	1.044	1.017	6
10:00	02:00	0.985	1.042	6
11:00	03:00	0.975	1.000	6
12:00	04:00	0.966	0.988	6
13:00	05:00	0.963	0.968	6
14:00	06:00	0.992	0.939	6
15:00	07:00	1.001	0.917	5
16:00	08:00	1.012	0.888	6
17:00	09:00	1.019	0.925	6
18:00	10:00	1.027	0.955	6
19:00	11:00	1.003	1.005	6
20:00	12:00	0.990	1.089	6
21:00	13:00	0.991	0.941	5
22:00	14:00	0.984	0.916	4
23:00	15:00	0.993	0.974	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 US, prices run cheapest around 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 3.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (18:00 Pacific), 4.5% 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 Chrome Ring?: On PvP Horde US, Chrome Ring is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 205% 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.