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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 15:00 UTC (07:00 Pacific), 4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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, Buzzard Wing is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 240% 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

23:00 to 02:00 UTC

15:00 to 18:00 Pacific · index 0.659 · typical 7s 86c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 Pacific · index 1.562 · typical 23s 90c

Spread after the 5% cut

+240%

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.

Buzzard Wingby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	5s 81c	5s 58c	131	0.656	2
01:00	17:00	8s	7s 37c	11	0.498	1
02:00	18:00	27s 79c	26s 18c	52	1.642	4
03:00	19:00	24s 87c	18s 25c	114	1.473	4
04:00	20:00	25s 84c	11s 75c	125	1.557	4
05:00	21:00	20s 98c	11s 87c	208	1.656	2
06:00	22:00	17s 20c	11s 75c	127	1.217	4
07:00	23:00	19s	11s 54c	174	1.287	3
08:00	00:00	13s 40c	8s 40c	201	1.199	3
09:00	01:00	14s 46c	9s 84c	153	1.097	4
10:00	02:00	13s 21c	9s 34c	155	1.033	4
11:00	03:00	11s 73c	8s 87c	135	0.969	4
12:00	04:00	11s 30c	9s 2c	141	0.936	4
13:00	05:00	13s 23c	10s 47c	125	0.891	3
14:00	06:00	12s 16c	10s 79c	131	0.769	3
15:00	07:00	11s 37c	10s 99c	126	0.733	3
16:00	08:00	11s 27c	10s 44c	118	0.745	3
17:00	09:00	11s 17c	10s 44c	112	0.766	3
18:00	10:00	11s 11c	10s 83c	90	0.780	3
19:00	11:00	11s 13c	10s 59c	87	0.798	3
20:00	12:00	11s 6c	5s 49c	97	0.829	3
21:00	13:00	10s 68c	9s 48c	106	0.816	3
22:00	14:00	10s 24c	7s 8c	102	0.828	3
23:00	15:00	9s 78c	7s 8c	120	0.825	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/3404 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.013	0.982	4
01:00	17:00	1.147	0.879	3
02:00	18:00	1.064	0.830	5
03:00	19:00	1.030	1.055	5
04:00	20:00	1.002	1.036	5
05:00	21:00	1.017	1.083	3
06:00	22:00	1.006	1.122	5
07:00	23:00	0.994	1.215	3
08:00	00:00	0.987	1.175	4
09:00	01:00	1.004	1.136	5
10:00	02:00	0.979	1.135	5
11:00	03:00	0.980	1.075	5
12:00	04:00	0.972	1.113	5
13:00	05:00	0.974	1.012	4
14:00	06:00	0.975	0.986	4
15:00	07:00	0.960	0.954	3
16:00	08:00	0.986	0.904	4
17:00	09:00	0.989	0.864	4
18:00	10:00	1.018	0.856	4
19:00	11:00	0.981	0.879	4
20:00	12:00	0.972	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.979	0.927	4
22:00	14:00	0.985	0.921	3
23:00	15:00	0.984	0.958	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 15:00 UTC (07:00 Pacific), 4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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 Buzzard Wing?: On PvP Horde US, Buzzard Wing is cheapest from 23:00 to 02:00 UTC (15:00 to 18:00 Pacific) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 240% 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.