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), 4.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.2% 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, Inscribed Leather Spaulders is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 64% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 0.914 · typical 26s 45c

Best hours to sell

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 1.075 · typical 39s 66c

Spread after the 5% cut

+64%

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.

Inscribed Leather Spauldersby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	20s 88c	19s	26	0.985	2
01:00	17:00	21s 67c	20s	21	0.943	1
02:00	18:00	24s 67c	22s 33c	22	0.939	3
03:00	19:00	24s 56c	22s 67c	23	0.955	3
04:00	20:00	43s 25c	40s 75c	20	1.038	4
05:00	21:00	20s	18s	27	0.990	2
06:00	22:00	42s 63c	37s 25c	21	1.066	4
07:00	23:00	41s 89c	36s	21	1.056	3
08:00	00:00	23s	21s 33c	27	0.976	3
09:00	01:00	37s 41c	33s 75c	23	1.044	4
10:00	02:00	37s 25c	33s 75c	24	1.054	4
11:00	03:00	37s 31c	33s 25c	24	1.074	4
12:00	04:00	37s 25c	33s 25c	22	1.079	4
13:00	05:00	34s 75c	32s 25c	18	1.045	4
14:00	06:00	40s 33c	32s 67c	20	1.083	3
15:00	07:00	39s 33c	28s 67c	20	1.063	3
16:00	08:00	39s 33c	30s	17	1.080	3
17:00	09:00	33s 50c	26s	18	0.997	3
18:00	10:00	30s 5c	26s 67c	19	0.944	3
19:00	11:00	28s 7c	25s	21	0.919	3
20:00	12:00	27s 89c	25s 33c	23	0.929	3
21:00	13:00	27s 67c	24s 67c	25	0.932	3
22:00	14:00	26s	23s	28	0.903	3
23:00	15:00	25s 67c	21s 33c	29	0.908	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/4700 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.022	0.990	4
01:00	17:00	1.142	0.875	3
02:00	18:00	1.074	0.827	5
03:00	19:00	1.038	1.062	5
04:00	20:00	1.009	1.046	5
05:00	21:00	1.015	1.081	3
06:00	22:00	1.008	1.119	5
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.200	3
08:00	00:00	0.988	1.170	4
09:00	01:00	1.005	1.121	5
10:00	02:00	0.983	1.117	5
11:00	03:00	0.984	1.058	5
12:00	04:00	0.968	1.088	5
13:00	05:00	0.962	1.092	5
14:00	06:00	0.968	0.982	4
15:00	07:00	0.956	0.956	3
16:00	08:00	0.977	0.903	4
17:00	09:00	0.982	0.863	4
18:00	10:00	1.018	0.863	4
19:00	11:00	0.976	0.884	4
20:00	12:00	0.966	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.979	0.926	4
22:00	14:00	0.989	0.917	3
23:00	15:00	0.992	0.959	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), 4.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.2% 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 Inscribed Leather Spaulders?: On PvP Horde US, Inscribed Leather Spaulders is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 Pacific) and dearest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 64% 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.