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, Recipe: Clam Chowder is cheapest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 465% 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

18:00 to 21:00 UTC

19:00 to 22:00 CET · index 0.613 · typical 18s 49c

Best hours to sell

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 CET · index 2.053 · typical 88s 50c

Spread after the 5% cut

+465%

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: Clam Chowderby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	17s 25c	15s	38	0.703	4
01:00	02:00	16s 58c	15s	34	0.627	3
02:00	03:00	14s 67c	14s 33c	28	0.592	3
03:00	04:00	15s	14s 75c	19	0.632	4
04:00	05:00	1g 64s 50c	1g 64s 50c	23	3.570	2
05:00	06:00	58s	58s	16	1.353	2
06:00	07:00	43s	43s	24	1.237	3
07:00	08:00	36s 25c	23s 25c	20	1.100	4
08:00	09:00	36s 50c	20s 75c	20	1.121	4
09:00	10:00	38s 46c	24s 25c	21	1.259	4
10:00	11:00	27s 48c	27s 33c	21	1.033	3
11:00	12:00	27s 33c	25s 67c	24	1.029	3
12:00	13:00	30s 17c	25s 67c	21	1.091	3
13:00	14:00	25s 67c	20s	25	0.960	3
14:00	15:00	28s 19c	21s 33c	29	1.010	3
15:00	16:00	25s 67c	21s	29	0.969	3
16:00	17:00	25s 56c	18s	36	0.806	3
17:00	18:00	21s 93c	16s 33c	48	0.721	3
18:00	19:00	18s 50c	15s 67c	52	0.603	3
19:00	20:00	20s 15c	14s	52	0.576	2
20:00	21:00	16s 81c	15s	38	0.660	4
21:00	22:00	17s 20c	15s	35	0.674	4
22:00	23:00	18s 86c	16s 33c	41	0.755	3
23:00	00:00	22s 25c	16s	27	0.920	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/5528 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 Recipe: Clam Chowder?: On Normal Alliance EU, Recipe: Clam Chowder is cheapest from 18:00 to 21:00 UTC (19:00 to 22:00 CET) and dearest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 465% 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.