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), 4.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 6.7% 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, Gnoll Skull Basher is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 18% 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 0.909 · typical 19s 1c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 CET · index 1.086 · typical 22s 50c

Spread after the 5% cut

+18%

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.

Gnoll Skull Basherby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	17s 33c	15s 33c	31	0.964	3
01:00	02:00	24s	23s 25c	21	1.059	4
02:00	03:00	18s 75c	15s	25	1.160	4
03:00	04:00	24s 75c	23s 50c	20	1.040	4
04:00	05:00	15s 50c	13s 50c	25	1.030	2
05:00	06:00	33s 50c	29s	18	1.186	2
06:00	07:00	15s 75c	14s 75c	21	0.974	4
07:00	08:00	21s 20c	19s 80c	17	1.006	5
08:00	09:00	19s 93c	17s 60c	19	0.960	5
09:00	10:00	19s 80c	16s 20c	18	0.961	5
10:00	11:00	17s 87c	16s 40c	19	0.919	5
11:00	12:00	19s 75c	18s 50c	19	0.954	4
12:00	13:00	28s 24c	26s 60c	16	1.027	5
13:00	14:00	28s 20c	27s 60c	20	1.025	5
14:00	15:00	20s 53c	19s 50c	24	0.828	4
15:00	16:00	18s 25c	17s 75c	28	0.944	4
16:00	17:00	18s 25c	17s	28	0.954	4
17:00	18:00	18s 25c	16s 25c	31	0.956	4
18:00	19:00	18s 38c	16s 25c	34	0.981	4
19:00	20:00	15s 81c	14s 67c	29	1.029	3
20:00	21:00	22s 42c	18s 20c	27	0.980	5
21:00	22:00	24s 21c	22s 60c	23	1.021	5
22:00	23:00	26s 75c	26s 33c	18	1.026	3
23:00	00:00	17s 65c	15s 75c	26	1.017	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/1440 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.986	1.178	5
01:00	02:00	0.978	1.125	5
02:00	03:00	1.052	1.024	5
03:00	04:00	1.011	0.992	5
04:00	05:00	1.001	0.970	3
05:00	06:00	1.067	0.740	3
06:00	07:00	1.013	0.897	4
07:00	08:00	1.008	0.848	5
08:00	09:00	1.027	0.861	5
09:00	10:00	1.011	0.911	6
10:00	11:00	1.008	0.813	5
11:00	12:00	1.001	0.879	5
12:00	13:00	1.005	0.906	5
13:00	14:00	0.988	0.971	5
14:00	15:00	1.000	0.996	4
15:00	16:00	0.983	1.064	5
16:00	17:00	0.986	1.056	5
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.113	5
18:00	19:00	0.960	1.149	5
19:00	20:00	0.973	1.118	4
20:00	21:00	0.978	1.140	5
21:00	22:00	1.013	1.117	5
22:00	23:00	1.009	1.092	3
23:00	00:00	0.984	1.039	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), 4.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 6.7% 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 Gnoll Skull Basher?: On Normal Alliance EU, Gnoll Skull Basher is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 CET) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 18% 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.