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, Heavy Woolen Pants is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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

16:00 to 19:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 CET · index 0.901 · typical 19s 16c

Best hours to sell

22:00 to 01:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 CET · index 1.221 · typical 22s 2c

Spread after the 5% cut

+16%

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.

Heavy Woolen Pantsby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	21s 64c	16s 25c	49	1.234	4
01:00	02:00	20s	18s	54	1.008	3
02:00	03:00	12s 83c	11s 67c	55	0.939	3
03:00	04:00	18s	17s	39	0.961	4
04:00	05:00	11s	10s 50c	59	0.883	2
05:00	06:00	23s 50c	23s	41	1.058	2
06:00	07:00	12s	11s 67c	29	0.905	3
07:00	08:00	16s 75c	16s 50c	29	0.938	4
08:00	09:00	17s	15s 25c	29	0.970	4
09:00	10:00	17s 27c	15s	34	0.997	4
10:00	11:00	19s 17c	17s 33c	38	1.069	3
11:00	12:00	19s	16s 33c	43	1.060	3
12:00	13:00	18s 53c	14s	47	1.050	3
13:00	14:00	18s 33c	14s 33c	50	1.053	3
14:00	15:00	17s 2c	14s	48	1.014	3
15:00	16:00	19s 93c	19s 25c	41	0.937	4
16:00	17:00	19s 50c	18s 25c	46	0.915	4
17:00	18:00	19s 22c	18s 25c	44	0.903	4
18:00	19:00	18s 75c	17s 50c	46	0.887	4
19:00	20:00	19s 71c	19s 67c	43	0.937	3
20:00	21:00	18s 75c	18s 25c	43	0.909	4
21:00	22:00	19s	18s 25c	37	0.944	4
22:00	23:00	20s 67c	19s	50	1.041	3
23:00	00:00	23s 75c	18s	23	1.387	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/4316 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 Heavy Woolen Pants?: On Normal Alliance EU, Heavy Woolen Pants is cheapest from 16:00 to 19:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 CET) and dearest from 22:00 to 01:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 16% 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.