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

Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET), 4.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 6.6% 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, Watcher's Handwraps is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 41% 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

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 CET · index 0.830 · typical 28s 23c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 1.290 · typical 41s

Spread after the 5% cut

+41%

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.

Watcher's Handwrapsby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	36s 33c	33s 67c	6	0.846	3
01:00	02:00	21s 33c	20s	8	0.828	3
02:00	03:00	31s	29s 25c	7	0.890	4
03:00	04:00	36s 33c	35s	4	0.896	3
04:00	05:00	29s	22s 50c	5	1.012	2
05:00	06:00	59s 25c	29s	2	1.899	1
06:00	07:00	30s 50c	29s 25c	4	0.923	4
07:00	08:00	33s 25c	29s 25c	4	1.047	4
08:00	09:00	33s 25c	29s 25c	5	1.061	4
09:00	10:00	33s 25c	29s 25c	5	1.078	4
10:00	11:00	33s 25c	29s 25c	5	1.095	4
11:00	12:00	39s 33c	28s 33c	5	1.155	3
12:00	13:00	40s 89c	24s 67c	5	1.227	3
13:00	14:00	39s 33c	24s 67c	5	1.199	3
14:00	15:00	37s 92c	29s	5	1.024	2
15:00	16:00	25s 19c	24s 67c	7	0.813	3
16:00	17:00	26s	24s 67c	9	0.832	3
17:00	18:00	33s 50c	33s 50c	7	0.846	4
18:00	19:00	32s 88c	32s 25c	7	0.856	4
19:00	20:00	24s 67c	21s 33c	8	0.837	3
20:00	21:00	29s 31c	27s 20c	6	0.910	5
21:00	22:00	33s 83c	31s	7	0.916	4
22:00	23:00	29s	24s 50c	8	0.914	2
23:00	00:00	32s 69c	30s 50c	7	0.894	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/14181 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.985	1.172	5
01:00	02:00	0.986	1.115	5
02:00	03:00	1.056	1.020	5
03:00	04:00	1.009	0.987	5
04:00	05:00	0.999	0.965	3
05:00	06:00	1.066	0.745	3
06:00	07:00	1.016	0.886	4
07:00	08:00	1.010	0.838	5
08:00	09:00	1.025	0.845	5
09:00	10:00	1.010	0.890	6
10:00	11:00	1.008	0.940	6
11:00	12:00	1.000	0.872	5
12:00	13:00	1.003	0.901	5
13:00	14:00	0.986	0.967	5
14:00	15:00	1.005	0.993	4
15:00	16:00	0.987	1.060	5
16:00	17:00	0.988	1.051	5
17:00	18:00	0.956	1.111	5
18:00	19:00	0.957	1.144	5
19:00	20:00	0.971	1.117	4
20:00	21:00	0.979	1.140	5
21:00	22:00	1.015	1.116	5
22:00	23:00	1.000	1.092	3
23:00	00:00	0.984	1.033	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 Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET), 4.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 6.6% 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 Watcher's Handwraps?: On Normal Alliance EU, Watcher's Handwraps is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 41% 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.