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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 15:00 UTC (07:00 Pacific), 4.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 11.9% 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, Sword of the Night Sky is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 86% 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

20:00 to 23:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 Pacific · index 0.739 · typical 44s 7c

Best hours to sell

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 1.337 · typical 74s 79c

Spread after the 5% cut

+86%

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.

Sword of the Night Skyby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	63s 33c	53s 33c	7	0.883	3
01:00	17:00	65s 75c	64s 50c	9	0.868	2
02:00	18:00	57s 67c	57s 67c	11	0.840	3
03:00	19:00	52s	51s 25c	9	0.812	4
04:00	20:00	52s 38c	51s 50c	8	0.833	4
05:00	21:00	50s 63c	35s	3	0.991	2
06:00	22:00	63s 12c	51s 50c	8	1.063	4
07:00	23:00	85s 25c	81s 33c	6	1.401	3
08:00	00:00	65s 67c	64s 33c	7	1.336	3
09:00	01:00	73s 44c	65s	9	1.273	4
10:00	02:00	73s 30c	63s 75c	11	1.270	4
11:00	03:00	72s 58c	65s	11	1.255	4
12:00	04:00	70s 57c	63s 33c	12	1.216	3
13:00	05:00	67s 48c	57s 67c	11	1.182	3
14:00	06:00	63s 33c	42s 67c	11	1.103	3
15:00	07:00	63s 25c	38s	11	1.117	3
16:00	08:00	57s 33c	38s	11	1.026	3
17:00	09:00	47s 89c	36s	9	0.875	3
18:00	10:00	46s 33c	35s	10	0.845	3
19:00	11:00	43s 50c	33s 50c	8	0.724	4
20:00	12:00	48s	43s	9	0.765	4
21:00	13:00	46s 10c	35s	9	0.742	4
22:00	14:00	38s 11c	36s 33c	9	0.711	3
23:00	15:00	59s 44c	58s 25c	7	0.868	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/2035 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.045	0.972	4
01:00	17:00	1.119	0.879	3
02:00	18:00	1.061	0.828	5
03:00	19:00	1.044	1.068	5
04:00	20:00	1.011	1.069	5
05:00	21:00	1.015	1.136	3
06:00	22:00	1.003	1.175	5
07:00	23:00	0.989	1.279	3
08:00	00:00	0.983	1.224	4
09:00	01:00	0.990	1.171	5
10:00	02:00	0.965	1.166	5
11:00	03:00	0.972	1.052	4
12:00	04:00	0.973	1.017	4
13:00	05:00	0.965	1.007	4
14:00	06:00	0.968	0.977	4
15:00	07:00	0.951	0.942	3
16:00	08:00	0.978	0.889	4
17:00	09:00	0.985	0.846	4
18:00	10:00	1.018	0.836	4
19:00	11:00	0.986	0.852	4
20:00	12:00	0.979	0.877	4
21:00	13:00	0.988	0.907	4
22:00	14:00	1.004	0.894	3
23:00	15:00	1.008	0.937	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 15:00 UTC (07:00 Pacific), 4.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 11.9% 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 Sword of the Night Sky?: On PvP Horde US, Sword of the Night Sky is cheapest from 20:00 to 23:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 Pacific) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 86% 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.