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, Militant Shortsword is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 163% 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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 0.898 · typical 54s 92c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 1.099 · typical 67s 29c

Spread after the 5% cut

+163%

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.

Militant Shortswordby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	57s 25c	26s 75c	40	1.048	4
01:00	02:00	60s 79c	25s	52	0.906	4
02:00	03:00	54s 13c	20s 50c	45	0.923	4
03:00	04:00	58s 18c	26s 25c	34	0.986	4
04:00	05:00	76s	19s 50c	54	1.042	2
05:00	06:00	58s 13c	27s 50c	23	0.877	2
06:00	07:00	49s 50c	20s 50c	41	0.851	4
07:00	08:00	57s 12c	25s	34	0.965	5
08:00	09:00	61s 15c	23s 40c	30	1.019	5
09:00	10:00	65s 41c	23s 60c	30	1.086	5
10:00	11:00	58s 73c	26s 17c	25	0.952	6
11:00	12:00	55s 26c	25s 40c	25	0.885	5
12:00	13:00	55s 80c	24s 25c	34	0.941	4
13:00	14:00	66s 8c	36s 20c	30	1.028	5
14:00	15:00	66s 36c	41s 25c	25	1.061	4
15:00	16:00	68s 77c	34s 60c	31	1.067	5
16:00	17:00	62s 35c	32s 40c	34	0.977	5
17:00	18:00	65s 23c	31s 60c	39	1.061	5
18:00	19:00	63s 93c	32s	40	1.068	5
19:00	20:00	73s 53c	33s 75c	39	1.129	4
20:00	21:00	64s 40c	28s 80c	41	1.101	5
21:00	22:00	59s 6c	28s 40c	37	0.983	5
22:00	23:00	64s 4c	30s	37	0.964	3
23:00	00:00	64s 12c	28s 20c	35	1.077	5

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/15211 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 Militant Shortsword?: On Normal Alliance EU, Militant Shortsword is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 163% 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.