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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 12.3% 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, Spiked Chain Leggings is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 329% 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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 0.569 · typical 48s 81c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 Pacific · index 1.547 · typical 1g 25s 42c

Spread after the 5% cut

+329%

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.

Spiked Chain Leggingsby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 10s 75c	30s	22	1.353	2
01:00	17:00	1g 27s 17c	83s	11	1.711	2
02:00	18:00	1g 25s 75c	57s 50c	13	1.541	4
03:00	19:00	1g 23s 33c	32s	23	1.389	3
04:00	20:00	1g 2s 70c	31s 67c	21	1.147	3
05:00	21:00	79s 12c	26s	24	0.985	2
06:00	22:00	89s 33c	27s 67c	22	1.046	3
07:00	23:00	74s	31s	15	0.893	3
08:00	00:00	79s 42c	27s	21	0.928	3
09:00	01:00	56s 64c	27s 75c	17	0.655	4
10:00	02:00	43s 95c	27s 75c	16	0.512	4
11:00	03:00	45s 85c	27s 75c	16	0.540	4
12:00	04:00	63s 18c	37s 75c	18	0.729	4
13:00	05:00	53s 33c	26s	20	0.641	3
14:00	06:00	57s 14c	24s 67c	17	0.689	3
15:00	07:00	65s 83c	31s	18	0.818	3
16:00	08:00	68s 57c	34s	19	0.836	2
17:00	09:00	51s 11c	39s 67c	13	0.582	3
18:00	10:00	77s 98c	37s 33c	14	0.845	3
19:00	11:00	97s 44c	70s 33c	12	1.061	3
20:00	12:00	99s 61c	70s 33c	14	1.080	3
21:00	13:00	1g 23s 33c	70s 33c	17	1.387	3
22:00	14:00	1g 16s 11c	37s	16	1.294	3
23:00	15:00	1g 20s	36s 33c	19	1.339	3

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/15521 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.047	1.000	4
01:00	17:00	1.123	0.870	3
02:00	18:00	1.067	0.822	5
03:00	19:00	1.023	1.059	5
04:00	20:00	1.007	1.054	5
05:00	21:00	1.010	1.097	3
06:00	22:00	0.990	1.126	5
07:00	23:00	0.984	1.194	3
08:00	00:00	0.986	1.150	4
09:00	01:00	1.005	1.107	5
10:00	02:00	0.977	1.108	5
11:00	03:00	0.970	1.056	5
12:00	04:00	0.959	1.070	5
13:00	05:00	0.950	1.062	5
14:00	06:00	0.968	1.051	5
15:00	07:00	1.048	0.964	4
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.892	4
17:00	09:00	0.973	0.853	4
18:00	10:00	1.010	0.857	4
19:00	11:00	0.978	0.877	4
20:00	12:00	0.977	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.981	0.931	4
22:00	14:00	0.991	0.931	3
23:00	15:00	1.005	0.969	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 PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 12.3% 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 Spiked Chain Leggings?: On PvP Horde US, Spiked Chain Leggings is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 329% 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.