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.

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, Schematic: Portable Bronze Mortar is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET) and dearest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 111% 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

06:00 to 09:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 CET · index 0.637 · typical 97s 10c

Best hours to sell

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 CET · index 1.384 · typical 2g 4s 28c

Spread after the 5% cut

+111%

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.

Schematic: Portable Bronze Mortarby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	2g 68s 68c	2g 41s 25c	21	1.081	4
01:00	02:00	2g 91s 67c	2g 88s 33c	18	1.028	3
02:00	03:00	52s 50c	13s 33c	31	2.044	3
03:00	04:00	2g 42s 50c	2g 22s	22	0.980	4
04:00	05:00	7s 50c	7s 50c	17	0.539	2
05:00	06:00	4g 30s	4g 30s	3	1.145	2
06:00	07:00	21s 33c	12s 67c	22	0.589	3
07:00	08:00	1g 35s 29c	1g 31s 25c	20	0.649	4
08:00	09:00	1g 34s 67c	1g 32s 25c	15	0.674	4
09:00	10:00	1g 34s 50c	1g 7s	16	0.707	4
10:00	11:00	1g 77s 67c	1g 41s	14	0.789	3
11:00	12:00	1g 77s 56c	1g 41s	13	0.809	3
12:00	13:00	1g 76s	1g 40s	13	0.857	3
13:00	14:00	1g 44s 8c	1g 34s 67c	10	0.882	3
14:00	15:00	1g 42s 65c	89s 67c	13	0.844	3
15:00	16:00	95s	86s 33c	9	0.841	3
16:00	17:00	91s	86s 33c	10	0.785	3
17:00	18:00	1g 50c	77s 33c	8	1.216	3
18:00	19:00	97s 15c	73s	9	1.221	3
19:00	20:00	23s 86c	7s 50c	9	1.290	2
20:00	21:00	98s 15c	42s 67c	13	1.354	3
21:00	22:00	98s 25c	40s	9	1.424	3
22:00	23:00	33s 50c	21s 67c	11	0.950	3
23:00	00:00	2g 4s 27c	32s	13	1.302	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/4414 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.982	1.174	5
01:00	02:00	0.998	1.162	4
02:00	03:00	1.064	1.083	4
03:00	04:00	1.022	1.012	5
04:00	05:00	1.004	1.010	3
05:00	06:00	1.042	0.760	3
06:00	07:00	1.029	0.921	3
07:00	08:00	1.016	0.884	4
08:00	09:00	1.011	0.888	4
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.905	5
10:00	11:00	1.021	0.813	4
11:00	12:00	1.016	0.874	4
12:00	13:00	1.010	0.911	4
13:00	14:00	0.995	0.968	4
14:00	15:00	1.005	1.013	4
15:00	16:00	0.982	1.043	4
16:00	17:00	1.000	1.003	4
17:00	18:00	0.963	1.085	4
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	4
19:00	20:00	0.979	1.033	3
20:00	21:00	0.957	1.129	4
21:00	22:00	0.963	1.133	4
22:00	23:00	0.987	1.055	3
23:00	00:00	0.986	1.013	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), 4.8% 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 Schematic: Portable Bronze Mortar?: On Normal Alliance EU, Schematic: Portable Bronze Mortar is cheapest from 06:00 to 09:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 CET) and dearest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 111% 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.