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, Aboriginal Shoulder Pads is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 0.862 · typical 21s 60c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 1.098 · typical 20s 47c

Spread after the 5% cut

-7%

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.

Aboriginal Shoulder Padsby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	21s 18c	17s 50c	15	1.000	4
01:00	02:00	22s 33c	21s 67c	12	1.042	3
02:00	03:00	12s	11s 33c	15	1.056	3
03:00	04:00	21s 25c	20s 75c	11	1.077	4
04:00	05:00	9s	8s	13	1.070	2
05:00	06:00	29s	28s 50c	6	1.130	2
06:00	07:00	11s 67c	11s 33c	10	1.075	3
07:00	08:00	20s 75c	19s 50c	8	1.090	4
08:00	09:00	20s 42c	17s 25c	8	1.083	4
09:00	10:00	19s 75c	17s 25c	9	1.059	4
10:00	11:00	23s 67c	20s	12	1.118	3
11:00	12:00	21s 23c	13s 33c	15	1.065	3
12:00	13:00	18s 88c	13s	18	0.998	3
13:00	14:00	17s 78c	13s	17	0.973	3
14:00	15:00	13s 37c	11s 67c	17	0.856	3
15:00	16:00	22s 50c	21s	12	0.906	4
16:00	17:00	22s 29c	21s 25c	11	0.917	4
17:00	18:00	21s 25c	21s	12	0.828	4
18:00	19:00	21s 25c	20s 75c	13	0.841	4
19:00	20:00	22s 19c	21s 33c	8	0.962	3
20:00	21:00	21s 50c	19s	12	0.928	4
21:00	22:00	21s 25c	21s 25c	12	0.938	4
22:00	23:00	22s 33c	17s 67c	11	1.007	3
23:00	00:00	21s 25c	17s 50c	11	0.983	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/14169 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 Aboriginal Shoulder Pads?: On Normal Alliance EU, Aboriginal Shoulder Pads is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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.