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% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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, Tower Shield is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 72% 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 0.856 · typical 19s 67c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.094 · typical 35s

Spread after the 5% cut

+72%

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 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Tower Shieldby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	18s	18s	7	0.957	1
01:00	17:00	35s	35s	1	1.134	1
02:00	18:00	18s	17s	3	0.729	2
03:00	19:00	23s	23s	3	0.872	3
04:00	20:00	18s	18s	8	0.967	1
05:00	21:00	19s	19s	4	0.897	2
06:00	22:00	19s	19s	5	0.921	2
07:00	23:00	19s	19s	5	0.939	2
08:00	00:00	19s	19s	5	0.958	2
09:00	01:00	29s 33c	29s 33c	4	1.045	3
10:00	02:00	29s 33c	29s	4	1.048	3
11:00	03:00	29s 50c	29s	4	1.061	3
12:00	04:00	29s 33c	28s 33c	4	1.055	3
13:00	05:00	35s	35s	3	1.089	2
14:00	06:00	35s	35s	3	1.105	2
15:00	07:00	35s	35s	3	1.088	2
16:00	08:00	35s	35s	3	1.080	2
17:00	09:00	31s 25c	27s 50c	3	1.016	2
18:00	10:00	27s 50c	27s 50c	3	0.946	2
19:00	11:00	27s 50c	27s 50c	3	0.962	2
20:00	12:00	20s	18s	5	1.046	1
21:00	13:00	20s	18s	6	1.051	1
22:00	14:00	20s	18s	5	1.055	1
23:00	15:00	18s 50c	18s	6	0.979	1

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/2222 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.013	0.982	4
01:00	17:00	1.147	0.879	3
02:00	18:00	1.064	0.830	5
03:00	19:00	1.030	1.055	5
04:00	20:00	1.002	1.036	5
05:00	21:00	1.017	1.083	3
06:00	22:00	1.006	1.122	5
07:00	23:00	0.994	1.215	3
08:00	00:00	0.987	1.175	4
09:00	01:00	1.004	1.136	5
10:00	02:00	0.979	1.135	5
11:00	03:00	0.980	1.075	5
12:00	04:00	0.972	1.113	5
13:00	05:00	0.974	1.012	4
14:00	06:00	0.975	0.986	4
15:00	07:00	0.960	0.954	3
16:00	08:00	0.986	0.904	4
17:00	09:00	0.989	0.864	4
18:00	10:00	1.018	0.856	4
19:00	11:00	0.981	0.879	4
20:00	12:00	0.972	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.979	0.927	4
22:00	14:00	0.985	0.921	3
23:00	15:00	0.984	0.958	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% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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 Tower Shield?: On PvP Horde US, Tower Shield is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 72% 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.