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), 13.5% 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, Shredder Operating Manual - Page 6 is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 167% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.743 · typical 16s 30c

Best hours to sell

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 Pacific · index 1.271 · typical 30s 88c

Spread after the 5% cut

+167%

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.

Shredder Operating Manual - Page 6by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	19s 58c	12s	116	0.832	3
01:00	17:00	28s 93c	15s 50c	60	1.022	2
02:00	18:00	15s 42c	12s 75c	60	0.701	4
03:00	19:00	16s 9c	11s	67	0.689	4
04:00	20:00	17s 39c	9s 25c	68	0.837	4
05:00	21:00	17s 27c	7s 50c	108	1.024	2
06:00	22:00	16s 4c	10s 75c	64	0.812	4
07:00	23:00	16s 67c	11s 33c	77	0.905	3
08:00	00:00	14s 83c	9s 33c	87	0.779	3
09:00	01:00	16s 66c	10s 75c	76	0.820	4
10:00	02:00	16s 85c	8s	75	0.830	4
11:00	03:00	18s 42c	10s 50c	57	0.938	4
12:00	04:00	20s 36c	15s 50c	60	1.048	4
13:00	05:00	19s 49c	14s 25c	69	1.003	4
14:00	06:00	18s 25c	15s	71	0.937	4
15:00	07:00	28s 91c	17s	83	1.285	4
16:00	08:00	28s 65c	25s 60c	62	1.199	5
17:00	09:00	29s 85c	21s 20c	79	1.249	5
18:00	10:00	27s 80c	14s 40c	85	1.208	5
19:00	11:00	32s 50c	19s 25c	80	1.298	4
20:00	12:00	32s 33c	14s	80	1.308	4
21:00	13:00	29s 60c	15s	84	1.201	4
22:00	14:00	25s 75c	11s 67c	122	1.068	3
23:00	15:00	24s 13c	11s 75c	97	1.003	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.pvp.horde.us/16650 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.056	1.010	4
01:00	17:00	1.135	0.885	3
02:00	18:00	1.072	0.827	5
03:00	19:00	1.031	1.066	5
04:00	20:00	1.013	1.060	5
05:00	21:00	1.011	1.121	3
06:00	22:00	0.983	1.131	5
07:00	23:00	0.974	1.194	3
08:00	00:00	0.976	1.146	4
09:00	01:00	1.004	1.086	5
10:00	02:00	0.980	1.076	5
11:00	03:00	0.968	1.028	5
12:00	04:00	0.961	1.026	5
13:00	05:00	0.950	1.003	5
14:00	06:00	0.965	0.989	5
15:00	07:00	0.993	0.965	4
16:00	08:00	0.996	0.894	5
17:00	09:00	0.987	0.961	5
18:00	10:00	1.020	0.976	5
19:00	11:00	0.970	0.872	4
20:00	12:00	0.971	0.889	4
21:00	13:00	0.986	0.914	4
22:00	14:00	0.991	0.921	3
23:00	15:00	1.007	0.961	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), 13.5% 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 Shredder Operating Manual - Page 6?: On PvP Horde US, Shredder Operating Manual - Page 6 is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 167% 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.