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

Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 01:00 UTC (02:00 CET), 3% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 2.9% 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 Normal Alliance EU 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 Alliance EU, Sword of the Fallen is cheapest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 108% after the 5 percent cut.

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

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

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 CET · index 0.786 · typical 62s 32c

Best hours to sell

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

10:00 to 13:00 CET · index 1.332 · typical 1g 17s 19c

Spread after the 5% cut

+108%

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 Fallenby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	64s 58c	51s 50c	38	0.805	6
01:00	02:00	63s 20c	53s 67c	40	0.795	6
02:00	03:00	75s 95c	48s 40c	38	0.999	5
03:00	04:00	61s	53s	30	0.762	5
04:00	05:00	56s	51s	17	0.732	2
05:00	06:00	69s 96c	56s 67c	20	0.863	3
06:00	07:00	75s 75c	66s 75c	17	1.031	4
07:00	08:00	73s 94c	64s 86c	16	0.972	7
08:00	09:00	94s 79c	79s 83c	13	1.213	6
09:00	10:00	1g 2s 86c	75s	13	1.256	8
10:00	11:00	98s 95c	78s	17	1.209	8
11:00	12:00	1g 49s 75c	78s 25c	21	1.530	8
12:00	13:00	1g 4s 46c	78s	29	1.192	8
13:00	14:00	94s 60c	69s 25c	31	1.122	8
14:00	15:00	91s 21c	65s 14c	37	1.080	7
15:00	16:00	89s 42c	65s 13c	39	1.076	8
16:00	17:00	86s 71c	62s 13c	40	1.042	8
17:00	18:00	82s 54c	59s 63c	42	0.987	8
18:00	19:00	78s 73c	55s 25c	44	0.942	8
19:00	20:00	76s 42c	55s 71c	35	0.943	7
20:00	21:00	75s 26c	54s 38c	35	0.921	8
21:00	22:00	74s 77c	53s 86c	41	0.894	7
22:00	23:00	69s 18c	50s	43	0.840	5
23:00	00:00	65s 41c	52s 43c	38	0.795	7

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.alliance.eu/286977 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.980	1.151	7
01:00	02:00	0.970	1.165	7
02:00	03:00	1.029	1.066	6
03:00	04:00	0.991	1.030	6
04:00	05:00	1.003	0.977	3
05:00	06:00	0.995	0.843	4
06:00	07:00	1.011	0.838	4
07:00	08:00	0.999	0.783	7
08:00	09:00	0.989	0.777	6
09:00	10:00	1.024	0.722	8
10:00	11:00	1.019	0.794	8
11:00	12:00	1.006	0.844	8
12:00	13:00	1.020	0.894	8
13:00	14:00	1.009	0.953	8
14:00	15:00	1.016	0.973	7
15:00	16:00	1.009	1.022	8
16:00	17:00	1.010	1.074	8
17:00	18:00	1.006	1.109	8
18:00	19:00	0.985	1.173	8
19:00	20:00	0.988	1.175	7
20:00	21:00	0.974	1.228	8
21:00	22:00	1.004	1.144	7
22:00	23:00	0.977	1.133	5
23:00	00:00	0.986	1.132	7

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 Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 01:00 UTC (02:00 CET), 3% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 2.9% 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 Fallen?: On Normal Alliance EU, Sword of the Fallen is cheapest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET) and dearest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (10:00 to 13:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 108% 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 Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.