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

Across PvP Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 PvP Alliance 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 Alliance US, Basalt Ring is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 137% after the 5 percent cut.

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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 0.854 · typical 96s 24c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 1.185 · typical 1g 44s 42c

Spread after the 5% cut

+137%

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.

Basalt Ringby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	88s	57s	29	0.829	2
01:00	17:00	1g 30s 17c	57s	22	1.247	2
02:00	18:00	93s 50c	55s	26	0.865	2
03:00	19:00	96s 90c	46s 33c	25	0.872	3
04:00	20:00	1g 6s 8c	43s	26	0.924	3
05:00	21:00	1g 6s 45c	57s 25c	22	0.922	4
06:00	22:00	97s 38c	54s 75c	23	0.855	4
07:00	23:00	94s 67c	60s 67c	23	0.830	3
08:00	00:00	96s 67c	58s 33c	21	0.877	3
09:00	01:00	95s	75s	18	0.857	2
10:00	02:00	1g 6s 33c	65s 33c	16	0.948	3
11:00	03:00	1g 29s	1g 1s 75c	17	0.923	4
12:00	04:00	1g 60s	1g 28s 50c	14	0.969	2
13:00	05:00	1g 3s 83c	58s 67c	19	0.789	3
14:00	06:00	1g 69s	1g 48s 50c	10	1.298	4
15:00	07:00	99s 67c	51s	18	0.926	3
16:00	08:00	1g 70s 88c	1g 49s 50c	9	1.304	4
17:00	09:00	1g 42s 56c	1g 9s 67c	13	1.030	3
18:00	10:00	1g 51s 33c	1g 5s 33c	11	1.087	3
19:00	11:00	1g 52s 33c	1g 5s 33c	10	1.108	3
20:00	12:00	1g 6s 50c	50s 33c	23	0.985	3
21:00	13:00	1g 11s 67c	52s	19	1.001	2
22:00	14:00	1g 67s 83c	1g 3s 67c	11	1.282	3
23:00	15:00	1g 53s 75c	88s 50c	16	1.271	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.alliance.us/11996 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.009	1.004	4
01:00	17:00	1.068	0.851	3
02:00	18:00	0.966	1.095	3
03:00	19:00	0.982	1.106	4
04:00	20:00	1.004	1.073	5
05:00	21:00	1.013	1.110	6
06:00	22:00	1.024	1.193	5
07:00	23:00	1.007	1.041	6
08:00	00:00	1.015	1.320	5
09:00	01:00	1.001	1.130	4
10:00	02:00	1.004	0.918	5
11:00	03:00	0.982	1.085	4
12:00	04:00	0.970	0.985	3
13:00	05:00	0.966	0.988	4
14:00	06:00	1.134	0.842	5
15:00	07:00	0.953	0.954	4
16:00	08:00	1.103	0.794	5
17:00	09:00	0.969	0.884	4
18:00	10:00	0.936	0.967	4
19:00	11:00	0.956	0.870	4
20:00	12:00	0.931	0.979	4
21:00	13:00	0.936	0.957	3
22:00	14:00	1.030	0.896	4
23:00	15:00	1.040	0.958	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 Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 Basalt Ring?: On PvP Alliance US, Basalt Ring is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 137% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.