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 Normal Alliance EU, Rough Leather Belt is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET) and dearest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 227% after the 5 percent cut.
Current market: Normal Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/eu
Item
Best hours to buy
17:00 to 20:00 UTC
18:00 to 21:00 CET · index 0.688 · typical 1s
Best hours to sell
00:00 to 03:00 UTC
01:00 to 04:00 CET · index 1.360 · typical 3s 44c
Spread after the 5% cut
+227%
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 0 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.
Rough Leather Beltby hour · Normal Alliance EU
| Hour (UTC) | CET | Typical | Lowest | Listings | Index | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 0.984 | |||
| 01:00 | 5s | 5s | 1.769 | |||
| 02:00 | 3s | 3s | 1.326 | |||
| 03:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.980 | |||
| 05:00 | 5s | 5s | 1.710 | |||
| 06:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.980 | |||
| 07:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 1.171 | |||
| 08:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 1.118 | |||
| 09:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 1.085 | |||
| 10:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 1.030 | |||
| 11:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 0.990 | |||
| 12:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 0.966 | |||
| 13:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.733 | |||
| 14:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.980 | |||
| 15:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.980 | |||
| 16:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.715 | |||
| 17:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.703 | |||
| 18:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.703 | |||
| 19:00 | 1s | 1s | 0.658 | |||
| 20:00 | 1s 42c | 1s | 0.810 | |||
| 21:00 | 1s 50c | 1s 50c | 0.776 | |||
| 22:00 | 1s 67c | 1s 67c | 0.861 | |||
| 23:00 | 2s 33c | 2s 33c | 0.971 |
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.normal.alliance.eu/1839 on the API.
The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU
| Hour (UTC) | CET | Price index | Listings index | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 0.983 | 1.172 | 5 | |
| 01:00 | 0.998 | 1.160 | 4 | |
| 02:00 | 1.064 | 1.081 | 4 | |
| 03:00 | 1.022 | 1.010 | 5 | |
| 04:00 | 1.004 | 1.008 | 3 | |
| 05:00 | 1.042 | 0.760 | 3 | |
| 06:00 | 1.029 | 0.920 | 3 | |
| 07:00 | 1.017 | 0.883 | 4 | |
| 08:00 | 1.012 | 0.887 | 4 | |
| 09:00 | 1.015 | 0.904 | 5 | |
| 10:00 | 1.021 | 0.811 | 4 | |
| 11:00 | 1.016 | 0.873 | 4 | |
| 12:00 | 1.011 | 0.910 | 4 | |
| 13:00 | 0.995 | 0.967 | 4 | |
| 14:00 | 1.006 | 1.011 | 4 | |
| 15:00 | 0.982 | 1.042 | 4 | |
| 16:00 | 1.000 | 1.002 | 4 | |
| 17:00 | 0.963 | 1.084 | 4 | |
| 18:00 | 0.953 | 1.127 | 4 | |
| 19:00 | 0.979 | 1.031 | 3 | |
| 20:00 | 0.957 | 1.128 | 4 | |
| 21:00 | 0.963 | 1.131 | 4 | |
| 22:00 | 0.980 | 1.087 | 3 | |
| 23:00 | 0.987 | 1.011 | 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 Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% 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 Rough Leather Belt?
- On Normal Alliance EU, Rough Leather Belt is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET) and dearest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 227% 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 Normal Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.