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), 5.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 11.1% 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 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, Item 287006 is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 116% 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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

22:00 to 01:00 Pacific · index 0.754 · typical 9g 37s 62c

Best hours to sell

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 1.510 · typical 17g 81s

Spread after the 5% cut

+116%

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.

Item 287006by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	14g 50s	13g	5	1.115	2
01:00	17:00	10g 1s	10g 1s	2	0.968	1
02:00	18:00	19g 50s	14g 50s	1	1.628	2
03:00	19:00	20g 50s	19g	5	1.797	2
04:00	20:00	13g 42s	10g 50s	5	1.104	2
05:00	21:00	12g	7g 50s	7	0.979	2
06:00	22:00	10g 75s	8g 50s	7	0.854	2
07:00	23:00	8g 97s 50c	8g 25s 50c	6	0.723	2
08:00	00:00	8g 40s 20c	6g 75s 50c	6	0.683	2
09:00	01:00	11g 25s	9g 98s 67c	5	0.907	3
10:00	02:00	11g	9g 98s 67c	4	0.917	3
11:00	03:00	10g 87s	9g 98s 67c	4	0.904	3
12:00	04:00	9g 64s 62c	8g 98s 33c	4	0.814	3
13:00	05:00	9g 33c	8g 83s 33c	4	0.770	3
14:00	06:00	10g	9g 83s	4	0.824	3
15:00	07:00	10g 97s	10g 74s	5	0.917	2
16:00	08:00	10g 82s	9g 62s 50c	5	0.920	2
17:00	09:00	10g 70s	9g 25s	5	0.935	2
18:00	10:00	12g 10s	11g 16s	3	1.011	3
19:00	11:00	13g 76s	12g 25s	5	1.165	2
20:00	12:00	12g 50s	12g 25s	7	1.013	2
21:00	13:00	12g 2s	11g 75s	7	0.965	2
22:00	14:00	9g 61s 44c	9g 33s 67c	5	0.782	3
23:00	15:00	19g	16g	6	1.307	1

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/287006 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.044	1.010	4
01:00	17:00	1.111	0.866	3
02:00	18:00	1.072	0.817	5
03:00	19:00	1.039	1.048	5
04:00	20:00	1.015	1.049	5
05:00	21:00	1.018	1.111	3
06:00	22:00	0.988	1.137	5
07:00	23:00	0.977	1.186	3
08:00	00:00	0.965	1.136	4
09:00	01:00	0.994	1.075	5
10:00	02:00	0.976	1.065	5
11:00	03:00	0.968	1.012	5
12:00	04:00	0.953	1.013	5
13:00	05:00	0.946	0.978	5
14:00	06:00	0.961	0.946	5
15:00	07:00	0.991	0.918	4
16:00	08:00	0.996	0.869	5
17:00	09:00	0.988	0.899	5
18:00	10:00	1.020	0.927	5
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.959	5
20:00	12:00	0.993	1.027	5
21:00	13:00	1.001	1.078	5
22:00	14:00	0.987	0.923	3
23:00	15:00	1.006	0.953	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), 5.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 11.1% 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 Item 287006?: On PvP Horde US, Item 287006 is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (22:00 to 01:00 Pacific) and dearest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 116% 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.