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

Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 5.4% 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, Lesser Belt of the Spire is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 4% 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

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 CET · index 0.903 · typical 10s 54c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 1.136 · typical 10s

Spread after the 5% cut

+4%

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.

Lesser Belt of the Spireby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	14s 25c	12s 75c	29	1.088	4
01:00	02:00	7s 50c	5s 50c	35	1.136	2
02:00	03:00	8s 67c	6s 67c	31	1.069	3
03:00	04:00	8s	6s 67c	29	1.003	3
04:00	05:00	7s	5s 50c	24	1.063	2
05:00	06:00	15s 13c	15s	7	1.007	2
06:00	07:00	7s 33c	6s	22	0.951	3
07:00	08:00	11s 25c	10s 75c	17	0.935	4
08:00	09:00	11s 25c	10s 50c	16	0.941	4
09:00	10:00	10s 75c	10s 50c	17	0.898	4
10:00	11:00	10s 75c	10s 25c	17	0.911	4
11:00	12:00	10s 75c	10s 50c	20	0.911	4
12:00	13:00	10s 78c	10s 50c	21	0.939	4
13:00	14:00	10s 63c	9s 75c	25	0.933	4
14:00	15:00	12s 4c	9s 67c	21	0.946	3
15:00	16:00	9s 25c	8s 50c	29	0.886	4
16:00	17:00	10s 33c	9s 33c	26	0.878	3
17:00	18:00	11s	9s 33c	25	0.974	3
18:00	19:00	11s 33c	10s 67c	27	1.091	3
19:00	20:00	8s	7s 50c	35	1.173	2
20:00	21:00	11s	9s 33c	33	1.106	3
21:00	22:00	11s	8s	37	1.129	3
22:00	23:00	8s 17c	7s	21	0.941	3
23:00	00:00	14s 50c	13s 50c	25	1.091	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/1299 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.978	1.149	5
01:00	02:00	0.982	1.142	4
02:00	03:00	1.047	1.052	4
03:00	04:00	1.025	0.958	5
04:00	05:00	1.008	0.939	3
05:00	06:00	1.054	0.725	3
06:00	07:00	1.006	0.842	3
07:00	08:00	1.004	0.792	4
08:00	09:00	1.008	0.773	4
09:00	10:00	1.022	0.788	5
10:00	11:00	1.025	0.848	5
11:00	12:00	1.031	0.940	5
12:00	13:00	1.021	1.003	5
13:00	14:00	1.002	1.089	5
14:00	15:00	1.005	1.022	4
15:00	16:00	0.995	1.261	5
16:00	17:00	1.002	1.021	4
17:00	18:00	0.964	1.103	4
18:00	19:00	0.955	1.142	4
19:00	20:00	0.977	1.049	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.140	4
21:00	22:00	0.962	1.130	4
22:00	23:00	0.986	1.088	3
23:00	00:00	0.993	1.004	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 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 5.4% 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 Lesser Belt of the Spire?: On Normal Alliance EU, Lesser Belt of the Spire is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 4% 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.