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, Feathered Arrow is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 267% 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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 0.740 · typical 13c

Best hours to sell

17:00 to 20:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 Pacific · index 1.530 · typical 37c

Spread after the 5% cut

+267%

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 2 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Feathered Arrowby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	20c	10c	175	0.882	3
01:00	17:00	32c	9c	161	1.151	2
02:00	18:00	16c	10c	113	0.924	4
03:00	19:00	18c	10c	109	1.041	4
04:00	20:00	13c	9c	105	0.796	4
05:00	21:00	14c	10c	120	0.739	2
06:00	22:00	11c	10c	74	0.684	4
07:00	23:00	14c	10c	71	0.919	3
08:00	00:00	34c	33c	31	0.901	4
09:00	01:00	29c	28c	44	0.912	5
10:00	02:00	29c	18c	52	0.933	5
11:00	03:00	29c	18c	51	0.916	5
12:00	04:00	28c	13c	56	0.905	5
13:00	05:00	33c	14c	48	0.941	4
14:00	06:00	33c	14c	48	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	10c	9c	49	0.683	3
16:00	08:00	31c	14c	44	1.154	4
17:00	09:00	43c	35c	50	1.581	4
18:00	10:00	42c	20c	53	1.785	4
19:00	11:00	27c	16c	72	1.225	4
20:00	12:00	21c	17c	83	1.022	4
21:00	13:00	19c	15c	105	0.948	4
22:00	14:00	18c	12c	137	1.056	3
23:00	15:00	18c	11c	134	0.918	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.horde.us/3464 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 Feathered Arrow?: On PvP Horde US, Feathered Arrow is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 267% 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.