When is the WoW Forever auction house cheapest during the day?

Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 5.4% 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: Fillet of Frenzy is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 2% 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

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 CET · index 0.900 · typical 16s 64c

Best hours to sell

03:00 to 06:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 CET · index 1.117 · typical 17s

Spread after the 5% cut

+2%

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: Fillet of Frenzyby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	15s 25c	13s 50c	42	0.902	4
01:00	02:00	17s 67c	15s 67c	44	0.993	3
02:00	03:00	9s 83c	7s 67c	30	0.912	3
03:00	04:00	16s	14s 25c	16	1.005	4
04:00	05:00	11s 50c	9s 50c	16	1.117	2
05:00	06:00	23s 50c	19s	13	1.230	2
06:00	07:00	10s 33c	9s	12	0.991	3
07:00	08:00	14s 58c	13s 75c	30	0.975	4
08:00	09:00	16s	13s	31	1.116	4
09:00	10:00	15s 85c	12s	33	1.124	4
10:00	11:00	15s 50c	11s 25c	37	1.102	4
11:00	12:00	14s 90c	11s	40	1.096	4
12:00	13:00	12s	10s 75c	39	0.972	4
13:00	14:00	16s 60c	14s 40c	32	0.986	5
14:00	15:00	18s 50c	17s 75c	20	0.996	4
15:00	16:00	16s 60c	14s 60c	32	1.001	5
16:00	17:00	18s 46c	15s 75c	21	1.003	4
17:00	18:00	17s 86c	15s 75c	22	0.956	4
18:00	19:00	17s 41c	15s 75c	23	0.943	4
19:00	20:00	18s 43c	18s	33	0.966	3
20:00	21:00	15s 95c	15s	41	0.869	4
21:00	22:00	15s 55c	14s 50c	41	0.865	4
22:00	23:00	18s 28c	16s 33c	41	0.992	3
23:00	00:00	15s 30c	14s 50c	37	0.888	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/5485 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.978	1.149	5
01:00	02:00	0.982	1.142	4
02:00	03:00	1.047	1.052	4
03:00	04:00	1.025	0.958	5
04:00	05:00	1.008	0.939	3
05:00	06:00	1.054	0.725	3
06:00	07:00	1.006	0.842	3
07:00	08:00	1.004	0.792	4
08:00	09:00	1.008	0.773	4
09:00	10:00	1.022	0.788	5
10:00	11:00	1.025	0.848	5
11:00	12:00	1.031	0.940	5
12:00	13:00	1.021	1.003	5
13:00	14:00	1.002	1.089	5
14:00	15:00	1.005	1.022	4
15:00	16:00	0.994	1.262	5
16:00	17:00	1.002	1.021	4
17:00	18:00	0.964	1.103	4
18:00	19:00	0.955	1.142	4
19:00	20:00	0.977	1.049	3
20:00	21:00	0.950	1.140	4
21:00	22:00	0.962	1.130	4
22:00	23:00	0.986	1.088	3
23:00	00:00	0.993	1.004	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 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET), 5% under the daily average, and dearest around 05:00 UTC (06:00 CET), 5.4% 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: Fillet of Frenzy?: On Normal Alliance EU, Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 CET) and dearest from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 2% 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.