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), 4.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.8% 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, Barbed Club is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 85% 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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 CET · index 0.833 · typical 16s 3c

Best hours to sell

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 CET · index 1.223 · typical 27s 26c

Spread after the 5% cut

+85%

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.

Barbed Clubby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	21s 75c	14s 25c	148	1.064	4
01:00	02:00	21s 87c	15s 33c	173	1.046	3
02:00	03:00	16s 52c	13s	153	1.023	3
03:00	04:00	20s 21c	14s 25c	133	1.022	4
04:00	05:00	13s	11s	207	0.902	2
05:00	06:00	21s 63c	15s	92	0.949	2
06:00	07:00	15s 67c	13s	123	0.985	3
07:00	08:00	17s	14s 25c	92	0.905	4
08:00	09:00	17s 53c	13s 50c	82	0.963	4
09:00	10:00	15s 31c	13s 25c	80	0.862	4
10:00	11:00	15s 92c	13s 25c	88	0.893	4
11:00	12:00	16s 85c	15s 50c	66	0.744	4
12:00	13:00	23s 95c	23s 25c	74	0.954	4
13:00	14:00	20s 50c	17s 75c	85	0.908	4
14:00	15:00	17s 38c	14s 25c	92	0.844	4
15:00	16:00	22s 50c	19s 50c	98	0.987	4
16:00	17:00	22s 72c	19s 50c	98	1.010	4
17:00	18:00	18s 25c	13s	112	0.905	4
18:00	19:00	17s 73c	14s 50c	122	0.887	4
19:00	20:00	32s 67c	17s	110	1.298	3
20:00	21:00	26s 96c	14s	121	1.181	4
21:00	22:00	25s 58c	13s 75c	120	1.161	4
22:00	23:00	28s 19c	14s	126	1.222	3
23:00	00:00	28s	14s 75c	100	1.286	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/15222 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	1.170	5
01:00	02:00	0.995	1.159	4
02:00	03:00	1.068	1.069	4
03:00	04:00	1.030	0.996	5
04:00	05:00	1.019	0.990	3
05:00	06:00	1.062	0.745	3
06:00	07:00	1.027	0.906	3
07:00	08:00	1.013	0.862	4
08:00	09:00	1.007	0.862	4
09:00	10:00	1.013	0.881	5
10:00	11:00	1.010	0.948	5
11:00	12:00	1.011	0.871	4
12:00	13:00	1.005	0.912	4
13:00	14:00	0.991	0.968	4
14:00	15:00	1.003	1.009	4
15:00	16:00	0.982	1.040	4
16:00	17:00	0.998	1.006	4
17:00	18:00	0.959	1.087	4
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.124	4
19:00	20:00	0.979	1.035	3
20:00	21:00	0.956	1.137	4
21:00	22:00	0.964	1.137	4
22:00	23:00	0.979	1.085	3
23:00	00:00	0.993	1.002	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), 4.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.8% 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 Barbed Club?: On Normal Alliance EU, Barbed Club is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET) and dearest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 85% 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.