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, Bloodspattered Shield is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% after the 5 percent cut.

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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 0.745 · typical 15s 59c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 Pacific · index 1.252 · typical 25s 25c

Spread after the 5% cut

+95%

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.

Bloodspattered Shieldby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	31s 50c	24s	11	1.191	3
01:00	17:00	11s 17c	8s 50c	12	0.861	2
02:00	18:00	16s 50c	9s 50c	11	1.281	2
03:00	19:00	16s 43c	14s 75c	8	1.017	4
04:00	20:00	24s	13s	14	1.128	4
05:00	21:00	22s 36c	13s 40c	13	1.082	5
06:00	22:00	21s 20c	11s 60c	17	1.009	5
07:00	23:00	32s 20c	24s	17	1.663	5
08:00	00:00	22s 60c	13s 80c	16	0.934	5
09:00	01:00	23s	15s	17	0.898	4
10:00	02:00	23s 25c	18s 60c	13	1.029	5
11:00	03:00	20s 95c	11s 50c	20	0.984	4
12:00	04:00	28s 67c	19s 67c	16	0.964	3
13:00	05:00	19s 75c	15s 50c	17	0.842	4
14:00	06:00	19s 50c	17s 25c	15	0.818	4
15:00	07:00	16s 50c	16s 25c	12	0.870	4
16:00	08:00	22s 30c	16s 40c	11	1.037	5
17:00	09:00	21s 25c	12s 50c	14	0.860	4
18:00	10:00	23s 13c	11s 50c	18	0.940	4
19:00	11:00	17s 67c	12s	17	0.743	4
20:00	12:00	13s 88c	11s 50c	12	0.750	4
21:00	13:00	15s 22c	13s 33c	10	0.742	3
22:00	14:00	34s 75c	25s 75c	10	1.285	4
23:00	15:00	26s 33c	13s 60c	11	1.071	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/15494 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 Bloodspattered Shield?: On PvP Alliance US, Bloodspattered Shield is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 95% 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 PvP Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.