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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 06:00 UTC (22:00 Pacific), 3.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 09:00 UTC (01:00 Pacific), 5% 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 Horde 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 Horde US, Grunt's Belt is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 252% after the 5 percent cut.

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

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 Pacific · index 0.771 · typical 8s 28c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.296 · typical 20s 17c

Spread after the 5% cut

+252%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

provisional

Provisional: the thinnest hour has 3 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days; 10 makes it settled.

Grunt's Beltby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	14s 84c	6s	43	1.053	4
01:00	17:00	13s 90c	6s 33c	37	0.981	3
02:00	18:00	10s 73c	6s	39	0.911	5
03:00	19:00	9s 69c	5s 80c	43	0.792	5
04:00	20:00	10s 83c	5s 80c	46	0.896	5
05:00	21:00	6s 96c	5s	56	0.722	3
06:00	22:00	9s 43c	5s 60c	52	0.804	5
07:00	23:00	8s 46c	5s 75c	60	0.787	4
08:00	00:00	27s 35c	24s	43	1.032	5
09:00	01:00	22s 64c	17s 83c	41	1.045	6
10:00	02:00	23s 48c	13s	43	1.104	6
11:00	03:00	23s 50c	12s 83c	42	1.129	6
12:00	04:00	23s 53c	12s 83c	42	1.141	6
13:00	05:00	23s 73c	12s 83c	40	1.185	6
14:00	06:00	21s 91c	8s 67c	36	1.164	6
15:00	07:00	14s 88c	5s 20c	39	1.537	5
16:00	08:00	16s 94c	8s 67c	33	1.083	6
17:00	09:00	15s	8s 50c	34	0.959	6
18:00	10:00	12s 33c	5s 83c	36	0.924	6
19:00	11:00	12s 86c	5s 50c	39	0.981	6
20:00	12:00	13s 7c	5s 80c	42	0.869	5
21:00	13:00	13s 79c	5s 80c	44	0.928	5
22:00	14:00	10s 64c	4s 75c	50	0.967	4
23:00	15:00	14s 30c	6s	42	1.004	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.horde.us/15510 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.008	1.029	5
01:00	17:00	1.012	0.987	4
02:00	18:00	1.044	0.949	6
03:00	19:00	1.018	1.020	6
04:00	20:00	0.978	1.076	6
05:00	21:00	0.965	1.104	4
06:00	22:00	0.962	1.131	6
07:00	23:00	1.008	1.119	4
08:00	00:00	1.038	1.047	5
09:00	01:00	1.050	1.008	6
10:00	02:00	0.994	1.034	6
11:00	03:00	0.983	0.998	6
12:00	04:00	0.981	0.984	6
13:00	05:00	0.974	0.968	6
14:00	06:00	0.996	0.948	6
15:00	07:00	1.000	0.934	5
16:00	08:00	1.014	0.908	6
17:00	09:00	1.017	0.949	6
18:00	10:00	1.030	0.988	6
19:00	11:00	0.997	1.032	6
20:00	12:00	0.990	0.926	5
21:00	13:00	0.984	0.954	5
22:00	14:00	0.972	0.923	4
23:00	15:00	0.984	0.984	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 Horde US, prices run cheapest around 06:00 UTC (22:00 Pacific), 3.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 09:00 UTC (01:00 Pacific), 5% 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 Grunt's Belt?: On PvP Horde US, Grunt's Belt is cheapest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 252% 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.