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), 5.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 13.2% 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, Threshadon Ambergris is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 87% 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

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 0.870 · typical 10s 48c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 Pacific · index 1.363 · typical 18s 61c

Spread after the 5% cut

+87%

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.

Threshadon Ambergrisby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	11s	9s 50c	26	1.029	2
01:00	17:00	20s 83c	14s	11	1.455	1
02:00	18:00	11s	10s 50c	16	1.100	2
03:00	19:00	24s	22s 33c	16	1.533	3
04:00	20:00	13s 53c	12s 33c	16	1.054	3
05:00	21:00	9s 60c	8s 50c	28	1.024	2
06:00	22:00	12s 94c	11s	21	1.010	3
07:00	23:00	8s 50c	6s 48c	32	0.864	2
08:00	00:00	11s 33c	10s 99c	22	0.851	3
09:00	01:00	11s 62c	10s 92c	21	0.895	3
10:00	02:00	11s 26c	10s 92c	19	0.885	3
11:00	03:00	10s 40c	10s 21c	20	0.865	3
12:00	04:00	10s 33c	10s 21c	20	0.869	3
13:00	05:00	10s 33c	10s 1c	17	0.882	3
14:00	06:00	10s 26c	9s	16	0.894	3
15:00	07:00	10s 24c	8s 76c	16	0.917	3
16:00	08:00	10s 25c	8s 67c	14	0.977	3
17:00	09:00	9s 24c	8s	17	0.952	3
18:00	10:00	9s 20c	8s	17	0.976	3
19:00	11:00	12s 13c	11s	18	1.005	2
20:00	12:00	11s 67c	11s	21	0.984	2
21:00	13:00	11s 34c	11s	21	0.973	2
22:00	14:00	11s 33c	10s	22	1.008	2
23:00	15:00	11s	10s	24	0.997	2

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/2608 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.043	1.010	4
01:00	17:00	1.132	0.883	3
02:00	18:00	1.071	0.818	5
03:00	19:00	1.034	1.054	5
04:00	20:00	1.018	1.049	5
05:00	21:00	1.019	1.097	3
06:00	22:00	0.996	1.117	5
07:00	23:00	0.984	1.188	3
08:00	00:00	0.985	1.138	4
09:00	01:00	1.007	1.091	5
10:00	02:00	0.987	1.090	5
11:00	03:00	0.970	1.045	5
12:00	04:00	0.962	1.050	5
13:00	05:00	0.949	1.034	5
14:00	06:00	0.962	1.020	5
15:00	07:00	0.990	0.986	4
16:00	08:00	0.990	0.916	5
17:00	09:00	0.989	0.982	5
18:00	10:00	1.006	0.851	4
19:00	11:00	0.968	0.873	4
20:00	12:00	0.966	0.893	4
21:00	13:00	0.978	0.919	4
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.929	3
23:00	15:00	1.006	0.968	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), 5.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 13.2% 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 Threshadon Ambergris?: On PvP Horde US, Threshadon Ambergris is cheapest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 87% 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.