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), 4.7% 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.

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.

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, Recipe: Elixir of Lesser Fortitude is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 183% after the 5 percent cut.

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

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

03:00 to 06:00 CET · index 0.758 · typical 12s 42c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 1.604 · typical 33s 6c

Spread after the 5% cut

+183%

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.

Recipe: Elixir of Lesser Fortitudeby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	18s 25c	17s 25c	16	0.829	4
01:00	02:00	17s	17s	14	0.790	3
02:00	03:00	11s 67c	10s 33c	21	0.749	3
03:00	04:00	17s 58c	16s	15	0.836	4
04:00	05:00	8s	7s	17	0.690	2
05:00	06:00	21s 50c	20s	10	1.012	2
06:00	07:00	11s	9s 67c	17	0.786	3
07:00	08:00	16s 25c	15s 75c	12	0.827	4
08:00	09:00	46s 75c	26s 75c	11	2.197	4
09:00	10:00	33s 42c	26s 50c	12	1.575	4
10:00	11:00	19s	18s 67c	14	1.041	3
11:00	12:00	20s 50c	20s 25c	10	0.983	4
12:00	13:00	20s 25c	19s 25c	12	0.981	4
13:00	14:00	18s 67c	17s	18	1.074	3
14:00	15:00	18s 67c	16s	21	1.090	3
15:00	16:00	18s 33c	13s 33c	24	1.101	3
16:00	17:00	21s 61c	18s 75c	18	1.068	4
17:00	18:00	20s 75c	18s 50c	16	0.994	4
18:00	19:00	20s 75c	18s 50c	17	1.005	4
19:00	20:00	17s 67c	17s	14	1.002	3
20:00	21:00	20s 25c	17s 50c	16	0.887	4
21:00	22:00	20s 25c	17s 75c	15	0.874	4
22:00	23:00	17s	17s	12	0.788	3
23:00	00:00	18s 25c	17s 50c	12	0.820	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.normal.alliance.eu/3830 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.983	1.172	5
01:00	02:00	0.998	1.160	4
02:00	03:00	1.064	1.081	4
03:00	04:00	1.022	1.010	5
04:00	05:00	1.004	1.008	3
05:00	06:00	1.042	0.760	3
06:00	07:00	1.029	0.920	3
07:00	08:00	1.017	0.883	4
08:00	09:00	1.012	0.887	4
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.904	5
10:00	11:00	1.021	0.811	4
11:00	12:00	1.016	0.873	4
12:00	13:00	1.011	0.910	4
13:00	14:00	0.995	0.967	4
14:00	15:00	1.006	1.011	4
15:00	16:00	0.982	1.042	4
16:00	17:00	1.000	1.002	4
17:00	18:00	0.963	1.084	4
18:00	19:00	0.953	1.127	4
19:00	20:00	0.979	1.031	3
20:00	21:00	0.957	1.128	4
21:00	22:00	0.963	1.131	4
22:00	23:00	0.980	1.087	3
23:00	00:00	0.987	1.011	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 Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.7% 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 Recipe: Elixir of Lesser Fortitude?: On Normal Alliance EU, Recipe: Elixir of Lesser Fortitude is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (03:00 to 06:00 CET) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 183% 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 Normal Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.