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, Magic Dust is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 28% 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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 0.938 · typical 66s 89c

Best hours to sell

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 1.128 · typical 79s 47c

Spread after the 5% cut

+28%

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.

Magic Dustby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	73s	71s 66c	7	0.997	3
01:00	17:00	55s 24c	41s 65c	5	0.875	2
02:00	18:00	69s 25c	69s 25c	5	0.984	4
03:00	19:00	68s	53s 25c	8	0.969	4
04:00	20:00	69s 8c	61s 75c	7	0.980	4
05:00	21:00	74s 60c	62s	11	1.003	2
06:00	22:00	70s 50c	59s 50c	9	0.999	4
07:00	23:00	74s 66c	58s	10	0.997	3
08:00	00:00	68s 16c	55s 67c	11	0.949	3
09:00	01:00	65s 50c	65s 50c	8	0.918	4
10:00	02:00	67s	55s 75c	7	0.947	4
11:00	03:00	68s	58s 25c	5	0.961	4
12:00	04:00	57s 66c	57s 66c	4	0.944	3
13:00	05:00	57s 66c	57s 66c	4	0.945	3
14:00	06:00	57s 66c	57s 63c	3	0.938	3
15:00	07:00	57s 63c	57s 63c	3	0.934	3
16:00	08:00	68s 25c	68s 25c	2	1.002	4
17:00	09:00	80s 84c	80s	2	1.091	2
18:00	10:00	78s 50c	78s 50c	2	1.119	4
19:00	11:00	78s 92c	78s 50c	2	1.122	4
20:00	12:00	79s 75c	78s 50c	3	1.131	4
21:00	13:00	79s 75c	78s 50c	4	1.131	4
22:00	14:00	71s 89c	71s 33c	5	1.067	3
23:00	15:00	69s 75c	68s 75c	5	0.996	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/2091 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 Magic Dust?: On PvP Horde US, Magic Dust is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific) and dearest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 28% 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.