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

Across PvP Horde EU, prices run cheapest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 3% under the daily average, and dearest around 07:00 UTC (08:00 CET), 4.1% 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 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 PvP Horde EU, Guardian's Emblem is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 9% after the 5 percent cut.

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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 0.951 · typical 9g 7s 12c

Best hours to sell

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 1.071 · typical 10g 25s

Spread after the 5% cut

+9%

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

Confidence

provisional

Provisional: the thinnest hour has 5 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days; 10 makes it settled.

Guardian's Emblemby hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	9g 28s 38c	8g 83s 78c	4	0.990	9
01:00	02:00	9g 17s 99c	8g 67s 50c	4	0.969	8
02:00	03:00	9g 34s 50c	8g 95s 50c	4	0.990	8
03:00	04:00	9g 27s 95c	8g 98s 13c	4	0.982	8
04:00	05:00	8g 98s 50c	8g 98s 17c	5	0.941	6
05:00	06:00	9g 2s 52c	8g 82s 20c	4	0.959	5
06:00	07:00	9g 20s 33c	9g 3s 50c	3	0.952	6
07:00	08:00	8g 90s 75c	8g 78s	2	0.944	8
08:00	09:00	9g 19s 99c	8g 83s 17c	3	0.968	6
09:00	10:00	9g 81s 12c	9g	3	1.044	7
10:00	11:00	9g 74s 79c	9g 14s 50c	2	1.034	8
11:00	12:00	9g 44s 84c	8g 66s 71c	3	1.009	7
12:00	13:00	9g 44s 66c	9g 20s	3	1.010	7
13:00	14:00	9g 58s 62c	9g 11s 13c	3	1.021	8
14:00	15:00	9g 46s 78c	9g 5s 88c	3	1.007	8
15:00	16:00	9g 65s 10c	9g 4s	3	1.025	8
16:00	17:00	10g 29s	9g 69s 25c	3	1.070	8
17:00	18:00	10g 26s	9g 13s 19c	4	1.064	8
18:00	19:00	10g 20s	10g 12s	4	1.078	8
19:00	20:00	9g 47s 67c	8g 94s 25c	4	1.001	8
20:00	21:00	9g 25s 20c	8g 92s 85c	4	0.976	9
21:00	22:00	9g 33s 35c	8g 9s 59c	5	0.997	7
22:00	23:00	9g 54s 32c	8g 28s 57c	5	1.000	7
23:00	00:00	9g 13s	8g 16s 22c	4	0.971	9

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.eu/286995 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.987	1.197	10
01:00	02:00	0.987	1.077	9
02:00	03:00	0.970	1.140	8
03:00	04:00	0.980	1.024	8
04:00	05:00	1.013	0.901	8
05:00	06:00	0.973	0.945	7
06:00	07:00	0.998	0.873	8
07:00	08:00	1.041	0.708	9
08:00	09:00	0.981	0.853	9
09:00	10:00	1.017	0.819	10
10:00	11:00	0.993	0.881	10
11:00	12:00	0.994	0.913	10
12:00	13:00	0.994	0.955	10
13:00	14:00	1.001	0.958	10
14:00	15:00	0.990	1.018	10
15:00	16:00	1.005	1.015	10
16:00	17:00	1.013	1.044	10
17:00	18:00	1.007	1.036	10
18:00	19:00	1.006	1.086	9
19:00	20:00	1.004	1.055	9
20:00	21:00	1.016	1.050	10
21:00	22:00	1.010	1.123	9
22:00	23:00	1.023	1.157	8
23:00	00:00	0.995	1.174	10

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 EU, prices run cheapest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 3% under the daily average, and dearest around 07:00 UTC (08:00 CET), 4.1% 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 Guardian's Emblem?: On PvP Horde EU, Guardian's Emblem is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET) and dearest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 9% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.