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), 4.5% 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, Cerulean Ring is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 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 383% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.791 · typical 1g 25s 93c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 1.328 · typical 3g 43s 24c

Spread after the 5% cut

+383%

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 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Cerulean Ringby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 36s 63c	37s 50c	32	1.024	2
01:00	17:00	1g 19s	59s	17	1.018	1
02:00	18:00	1g 24s 83c	68s 67c	14	0.766	3
03:00	19:00	1g 25s 87c	68s	24	0.791	3
04:00	20:00	1g 27s 8c	66s	23	0.815	3
05:00	21:00	1g 30s 21c	39s 50c	35	0.956	2
06:00	22:00	1g 20s 19c	65s 33c	25	0.815	3
07:00	23:00	1g 19s	32s	34	0.869	2
08:00	00:00	1g 19s 8c	60s 67c	27	0.923	3
09:00	01:00	1g 19s 83c	41s	25	0.927	3
10:00	02:00	1g 27s 53c	41s	22	0.978	3
11:00	03:00	1g 25s 16c	41s	20	0.960	3
12:00	04:00	2g 83s 18c	2g 14s	16	1.119	4
13:00	05:00	2g 82s 72c	2g 14s	15	1.117	4
14:00	06:00	2g 83s 4c	2g 14s	16	1.140	4
15:00	07:00	2g 78s 69c	2g 14s	15	1.128	4
16:00	08:00	3g 36s 67c	2g 74s 67c	10	1.271	3
17:00	09:00	3g 43s 33c	2g 74s 67c	12	1.313	3
18:00	10:00	3g 47s	2g 74s 67c	12	1.365	3
19:00	11:00	3g 39s 40c	70s 33c	13	1.307	3
20:00	12:00	1g 22s 44c	67s 33c	16	0.718	3
21:00	13:00	1g 32s 22c	70s 33c	18	0.804	3
22:00	14:00	1g 49s 96c	70s 33c	18	0.960	3
23:00	15:00	1g 44s 67c	67s 33c	20	0.917	3

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/11985 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	1.027	1.055	5
04:00	20:00	1.011	1.051	5
05:00	21:00	1.015	1.092	3
06:00	22:00	0.994	1.122	5
07:00	23:00	0.989	1.189	3
08:00	00:00	0.990	1.145	4
09:00	01:00	1.009	1.103	5
10:00	02:00	0.982	1.104	5
11:00	03:00	0.975	1.053	5
12:00	04:00	0.964	1.066	5
13:00	05:00	0.955	1.057	5
14:00	06:00	0.972	1.046	5
15:00	07:00	0.987	1.018	4
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.892	4
17:00	09:00	0.973	0.853	4
18:00	10:00	1.011	0.857	4
19:00	11:00	0.979	0.877	4
20:00	12:00	0.978	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.982	0.931	4
22:00	14:00	0.991	0.930	3
23:00	15:00	1.005	0.968	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), 4.5% 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 Cerulean Ring?: On PvP Horde US, Cerulean Ring is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 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 383% 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.