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

Across PvP Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 00:00 UTC (01:00 CET), 5.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 12:00 UTC (13:00 CET), 4.4% 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 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 Alliance EU, Defias Enforcer's Mask is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 24% after the 5 percent cut.

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

11:00 to 14:00 UTC

12:00 to 15:00 CET · index 0.901 · typical 32g 49s

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 1.078 · typical 42g 44s

Spread after the 5% cut

+24%

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.

Defias Enforcer's Maskby hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	38g 95s	37g 37s	5	1.006	5
01:00	02:00	40g 69s	39g 44s	3	1.083	4
02:00	03:00	43g 94s	42g 44s	3	1.051	2
03:00	04:00	34g 44s	32g 94s	4	0.892	2
04:00	05:00	42g 44s	42g 44s	4	1.048	2
05:00	06:00	42g 44s	39g 50s	4	1.064	2
06:00	07:00	45g 88s	39g 99s	5	1.120	1
07:00	08:00	39g	39g	1	1.051	1
08:00	09:00	39g 50s	39g 50s	2	1.036	2
09:00	10:00	39g 25s	38g 75s	2	1.050	2
10:00	11:00	35g 99s	35g 99s	1	0.979	3
11:00	12:00	32g 99s	32g 99s	1	0.895	3
12:00	13:00	34g 50s	34g 50s	2	0.942	2
13:00	14:00	30g	30g	4	0.866	1
14:00	15:00	40g	39g 50s	4	1.060	2
15:00	16:00	40g 22s	40g 22s	2	0.994	4
16:00	17:00	39g 97s	38g 21s	3	0.984	4
17:00	18:00	38g 65s	37g 72s	3	0.960	4
18:00	19:00	37g 97s	37g 72s	3	0.951	4
19:00	20:00	39g 97s	38g 47s	4	0.947	4
20:00	21:00	37g 90s	35g 37s	4	0.962	5
21:00	22:00	36g 77s	35g 57s	4	0.931	5
22:00	23:00	44g 57s	34g 62s	5	1.111	3
23:00	00:00	37g 63s	34g 72s	5	1.015	4

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.eu/287019 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.949	1.254	6
01:00	02:00	0.960	1.124	8
02:00	03:00	1.001	1.041	6
03:00	04:00	0.989	1.030	6
04:00	05:00	1.000	0.966	6
05:00	06:00	1.021	0.862	5
06:00	07:00	1.037	0.815	8
07:00	08:00	1.009	0.795	8
08:00	09:00	1.009	0.803	9
09:00	10:00	0.999	0.818	9
10:00	11:00	1.015	0.831	9
11:00	12:00	1.023	0.860	9
12:00	13:00	1.044	0.893	7
13:00	14:00	1.007	0.929	8
14:00	15:00	1.022	0.998	8
15:00	16:00	1.002	1.010	8
16:00	17:00	1.013	1.020	9
17:00	18:00	0.973	1.099	8
18:00	19:00	0.991	1.081	7
19:00	20:00	0.979	1.127	7
20:00	21:00	1.003	1.103	7
21:00	22:00	0.983	1.196	6
22:00	23:00	0.990	1.165	7
23:00	00:00	0.980	1.180	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 PvP Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 00:00 UTC (01:00 CET), 5.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 12:00 UTC (13:00 CET), 4.4% 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 Defias Enforcer's Mask?: On PvP Alliance EU, Defias Enforcer's Mask is cheapest from 11:00 to 14:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 24% 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 EU through the night fills the gaps.