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), 5.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 13.2% 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, BKP "Sparrow" Smallbore is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 4% 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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.931 · typical 56s 17c

Best hours to sell

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 Pacific · index 1.042 · typical 58s 22c

Spread after the 5% cut

+4%

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.

BKP "Sparrow" Smallboreby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	48s	46s 50c	40	1.005	2
01:00	17:00	53s	47s	32	1.076	1
02:00	18:00	56s 50c	55s 67c	25	0.922	3
03:00	19:00	56s	53s 67c	38	0.927	3
04:00	20:00	56s	50s 67c	34	0.943	3
05:00	21:00	46s 50c	46s	41	0.990	2
06:00	22:00	61s	56s 75c	28	0.865	4
07:00	23:00	46s 50c	45s 50c	43	0.995	2
08:00	00:00	53s 67c	47s 67c	35	0.983	3
09:00	01:00	93s 36c	92s	25	1.105	4
10:00	02:00	74s 50c	74s	22	0.980	4
11:00	03:00	74s 25c	73s 75c	23	0.991	4
12:00	04:00	74s 25c	73s 75c	24	1.006	4
13:00	05:00	74s	73s 75c	21	1.003	4
14:00	06:00	74s	73s 75c	20	1.014	4
15:00	07:00	74s	73s 50c	18	1.027	4
16:00	08:00	73s 75c	73s 25c	20	1.033	4
17:00	09:00	73s 75c	67s	20	1.039	4
18:00	10:00	68s 23c	60s	19	1.002	4
19:00	11:00	80s 55c	80s	15	1.008	4
20:00	12:00	80s 50c	80s	17	1.014	4
21:00	13:00	73s 67c	72s 67c	24	1.001	3
22:00	14:00	73s 67c	69s 33c	26	1.027	3
23:00	15:00	73s 67c	69s 33c	27	1.045	3

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/3042 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.043	1.010	4
01:00	17:00	1.132	0.883	3
02:00	18:00	1.071	0.818	5
03:00	19:00	1.034	1.054	5
04:00	20:00	1.018	1.049	5
05:00	21:00	1.019	1.097	3
06:00	22:00	0.996	1.117	5
07:00	23:00	0.984	1.188	3
08:00	00:00	0.985	1.138	4
09:00	01:00	1.007	1.091	5
10:00	02:00	0.987	1.090	5
11:00	03:00	0.970	1.045	5
12:00	04:00	0.962	1.050	5
13:00	05:00	0.949	1.034	5
14:00	06:00	0.962	1.020	5
15:00	07:00	0.990	0.986	4
16:00	08:00	0.990	0.916	5
17:00	09:00	0.989	0.982	5
18:00	10:00	1.006	0.851	4
19:00	11:00	0.968	0.873	4
20:00	12:00	0.966	0.893	4
21:00	13:00	0.978	0.919	4
22:00	14:00	0.988	0.929	3
23:00	15:00	1.006	0.968	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), 5.1% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 13.2% 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 BKP "Sparrow" Smallbore?: On PvP Horde US, BKP "Sparrow" Smallbore is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 4% 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.