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

Across Normal Horde US, prices run cheapest around 07:00 UTC (23:00 Pacific), 2.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 17:00 UTC (09:00 Pacific), 7.3% 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 Normal 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 Normal Horde US, Banished Centaur's Pauldrons is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 18% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Horde US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/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

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 0.915 · typical 57s

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 1.065 · typical 69s 22c

Spread after the 5% cut

+18%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

provisional

Provisional: the thinnest hour has 4 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days; 10 makes it settled.

Banished Centaur's Pauldronsby hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	65s 50c	59s 83c	4	1.031	6
01:00	17:00	66s 86c	55s 43c	5	1.086	7
02:00	18:00	61s 29c	55s 57c	5	0.987	7
03:00	19:00	55s 50c	47s 33c	4	0.962	6
04:00	20:00	61s 54c	51s 50c	4	1.054	6
05:00	21:00	61s	51s 63c	5	1.047	8
06:00	22:00	59s 72c	54s 83c	5	0.996	6
07:00	23:00	61s 46c	52s	4	1.024	7
08:00	00:00	61s 75c	54s 88c	3	1.040	8
09:00	01:00	60s 67c	51s 50c	3	1.050	6
10:00	02:00	52s 25c	52s 25c	3	0.931	4
11:00	03:00	59s 75c	52s 25c	3	0.997	4
12:00	04:00	62s 25c	57s 25c	3	1.036	4
13:00	05:00	60s 50c	57s 17c	2	0.964	6
14:00	06:00	57s 57c	57s 57c	2	0.931	7
15:00	07:00	60s 80c	58s 80c	3	1.041	5
16:00	08:00	61s 92c	58s 83c	3	0.964	6
17:00	09:00	58s	56s 33c	3	0.912	6
18:00	10:00	56s 50c	54s 83c	3	0.917	6
19:00	11:00	56s 50c	56s 50c	2	0.916	6
20:00	12:00	60s 57c	60s 57c	2	0.962	7
21:00	13:00	64s 17c	64s	3	0.989	6
22:00	14:00	74s 83c	71s 66c	4	1.130	6
23:00	15:00	67s 33c	60s 80c	5	1.034	5

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.horde.us/285191 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.993	1.060	10
01:00	17:00	1.026	0.998	9
02:00	18:00	0.984	1.043	8
03:00	19:00	0.989	1.050	7
04:00	20:00	0.982	1.093	8
05:00	21:00	0.990	1.136	9
06:00	22:00	0.992	1.107	7
07:00	23:00	0.979	1.136	8
08:00	00:00	0.985	1.116	8
09:00	01:00	1.065	0.999	7
10:00	02:00	0.990	1.037	5
11:00	03:00	0.984	0.972	8
12:00	04:00	1.013	0.835	8
13:00	05:00	0.981	0.896	7
14:00	06:00	1.002	0.816	8
15:00	07:00	0.991	0.826	7
16:00	08:00	1.012	0.862	6
17:00	09:00	1.073	0.837	7
18:00	10:00	0.997	0.891	9
19:00	11:00	0.992	0.924	10
20:00	12:00	1.003	0.965	10
21:00	13:00	0.998	1.040	8
22:00	14:00	0.996	1.166	9
23:00	15:00	0.984	1.195	6

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 Horde US, prices run cheapest around 07:00 UTC (23:00 Pacific), 2.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 17:00 UTC (09:00 Pacific), 7.3% 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 Banished Centaur's Pauldrons?: On Normal Horde US, Banished Centaur's Pauldrons is cheapest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 18% 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 Horde US through the night fills the gaps.