Skip to content

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 Normal Alliance EU, Ivory Boar Tusk is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 CET) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.

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

Item

Best hours to buy

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 CET · index 0.997 · typical 4s 96c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 CET · index 1.003 · typical 5s

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.

Ivory Boar Tuskby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)TypicalLowestIndex
00:004s 97c4s 95c0.998
01:004s 96c4s 93c0.997
02:004s 96c4s 93c0.997
03:004s 97c4s 95c0.998
04:004s 95c4s 90c0.997
05:004s 99c4s 99c0.999
06:004s 96c4s 93c0.999
07:004s 96c4s 93c0.999
08:004s 96c4s 93c0.999
09:004s 96c4s 93c1.000
10:005s5s1.001
11:005s5s1.001
12:005s5s1.001
13:005s5s1.002
14:005s5s1.002
15:005s5s1.002
16:005s5s1.002
17:005s4s 97c1.002
18:005s4s 97c1.002
19:005s4s 95c1.004
20:004s 98c4s 97c1.000
21:004s 98c4s 97c0.999
22:004s 98c4s 96c0.999
23:004s 98c4s 98c0.999

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.normal.alliance.eu/3403 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)Price indexListings indexDays
00:000.9821.1745
01:000.9981.1624
02:001.0641.0834
03:001.0221.0125
04:001.0041.0103
05:001.0420.7603
06:001.0290.9213
07:001.0160.8844
08:001.0110.8884
09:001.0150.9055
10:001.0210.8134
11:001.0160.8744
12:001.0100.9114
13:000.9950.9684
14:001.0051.0134
15:000.9821.0434
16:001.0001.0034
17:000.9631.0854
18:000.9521.1284
19:000.9791.0333
20:000.9571.1294
21:000.9631.1334
22:000.9871.0553
23:000.9861.0134

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 Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% 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 Ivory Boar Tusk?
On Normal Alliance EU, Ivory Boar Tusk is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 CET) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 CET). The gap between them does not cover the 5 percent cut, so this is a buying pattern, not a flip.
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 Normal Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.