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

Across PvP Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 PvP Alliance US 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 PvP Alliance US, War Torn Pants is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

Current market: PvP Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/us

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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 Pacific · index 0.960 · typical 4s 36c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 Pacific · index 1.031 · typical 4s 18c

Spread after the 5% cut

-1%

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.

War Torn Pantsby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	4s 33c	4s	39	0.954	3
01:00	17:00	4s	4s	24	0.991	3
02:00	18:00	4s	3s 50c	30	0.984	2
03:00	19:00	4s 53c	4s	27	1.119	3
04:00	20:00	4s	4s	29	0.948	4
05:00	21:00	5s	4s 83c	26	0.996	6
06:00	22:00	4s	4s	32	0.969	5
07:00	23:00	5s 20c	5s 20c	30	1.014	5
08:00	00:00	5s 20c	5s	26	1.031	5
09:00	01:00	5s 25c	5s	28	1.020	4
10:00	02:00	5s	4s 80c	24	1.018	5
11:00	03:00	4s	4s	30	0.985	4
12:00	04:00	5s 33c	5s	32	1.012	3
13:00	05:00	5s 17c	4s 75c	29	1.032	4
14:00	06:00	5s	4s 75c	25	1.015	4
15:00	07:00	5s	4s 75c	23	1.005	4
16:00	08:00	4s 70c	4s 60c	21	1.000	5
17:00	09:00	4s 75c	4s 25c	27	0.988	4
18:00	10:00	4s 75c	4s 25c	27	1.007	4
19:00	11:00	4s 75c	4s 25c	27	1.012	4
20:00	12:00	4s 50c	4s	32	0.976	4
21:00	13:00	4s 33c	4s	32	0.939	3
22:00	14:00	4s 25c	4s	31	0.963	4
23:00	15:00	4s 40c	4s	29	1.019	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.pvp.alliance.us/15485 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.009	1.004	4
01:00	17:00	1.068	0.851	3
02:00	18:00	0.966	1.095	3
03:00	19:00	0.982	1.106	4
04:00	20:00	1.004	1.073	5
05:00	21:00	1.013	1.110	6
06:00	22:00	1.024	1.193	5
07:00	23:00	1.007	1.041	6
08:00	00:00	1.015	1.320	5
09:00	01:00	1.001	1.130	4
10:00	02:00	1.004	0.918	5
11:00	03:00	0.982	1.085	4
12:00	04:00	0.970	0.985	3
13:00	05:00	0.966	0.988	4
14:00	06:00	1.134	0.842	5
15:00	07:00	0.953	0.954	4
16:00	08:00	1.103	0.794	5
17:00	09:00	0.969	0.884	4
18:00	10:00	0.936	0.967	4
19:00	11:00	0.956	0.870	4
20:00	12:00	0.931	0.979	4
21:00	13:00	0.936	0.957	3
22:00	14:00	1.030	0.896	4
23:00	15:00	1.040	0.958	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 PvP Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 War Torn Pants?: On PvP Alliance US, War Torn Pants is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). 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 PvP Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.