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

Across PvP Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 12:00 UTC (04:00 Pacific), 3% under the daily average, and dearest around 10:00 UTC (02:00 Pacific), 4.8% 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 Alliance 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 Alliance US, Mark of the Marsh is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/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

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

14:00 to 17:00 Pacific · index 0.931 · typical 11g 45s

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 1.121 · typical 13g 54s

Spread after the 5% cut

+16%

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.

Mark of the Marshby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	10g 58s	10g 10s	4	0.910	5
01:00	17:00	10g 79s	10g 58s	3	0.965	7
02:00	18:00	10g 89s	10g 75s	3	0.981	6
03:00	19:00	11g 74s	10g 76s	4	0.967	7
04:00	20:00	11g 50s	11g 23s	4	0.940	7
05:00	21:00	11g 16s	10g 90s	4	0.924	8
06:00	22:00	11g 90s	10g 90s	4	0.983	8
07:00	23:00	12g 62s	12g 37s	3	1.027	6
08:00	00:00	11g 44s	10g 66s	4	0.990	7
09:00	01:00	11g 21s	10g 89s	3	1.038	5
10:00	02:00	11g 11s	10g 60s	3	0.999	6
11:00	03:00	10g 53s	10g 52s	2	0.995	5
12:00	04:00	12g 12s	11g 36s	4	0.958	4
13:00	05:00	12g 57s	11g 52s	4	1.017	8
14:00	06:00	14g 84s	14g	4	1.192	6
15:00	07:00	12g 73s	12g	4	1.039	7
16:00	08:00	13g 6s	12g 29s	4	1.133	8
17:00	09:00	11g 80s	11g 1s	4	1.040	8
18:00	10:00	13g 5s	12g 51s	4	1.038	8
19:00	11:00	12g 79s	12g 63s	4	1.056	6
20:00	12:00	11g 75s	11g 50s	5	0.966	8
21:00	13:00	12g 10s	11g 86s	5	0.958	7
22:00	14:00	11g 85s	11g 62s	4	0.949	8
23:00	15:00	11g 93s	11g 66s	4	0.933	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.pvp.alliance.us/286984 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.985	1.025	8
01:00	17:00	0.991	1.013	7
02:00	18:00	0.990	1.059	7
03:00	19:00	0.979	1.054	8
04:00	20:00	0.973	1.052	9
05:00	21:00	0.984	1.053	10
06:00	22:00	0.995	1.104	9
07:00	23:00	0.991	1.080	9
08:00	00:00	0.976	1.145	9
09:00	01:00	1.024	1.063	7
10:00	02:00	1.048	0.928	7
11:00	03:00	1.003	1.037	5
12:00	04:00	0.970	1.011	5
13:00	05:00	1.009	0.953	9
14:00	06:00	1.019	0.938	9
15:00	07:00	0.983	0.941	8
16:00	08:00	1.036	0.871	10
17:00	09:00	1.007	0.914	9
18:00	10:00	1.012	0.942	9
19:00	11:00	1.033	0.842	8
20:00	12:00	1.004	0.938	9
21:00	13:00	0.995	0.991	8
22:00	14:00	0.991	1.071	9
23:00	15:00	1.001	0.975	9

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 Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 12:00 UTC (04:00 Pacific), 3% under the daily average, and dearest around 10:00 UTC (02:00 Pacific), 4.8% 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 Mark of the Marsh?: On PvP Alliance US, Mark of the Marsh is cheapest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (14:00 to 17:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.