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

Across PvP Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 PvP Alliance 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 Alliance US, Recipe: Rockscale Cod is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 65% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/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

02:00 to 05:00 UTC

18:00 to 21:00 Pacific · index 0.861 · typical 38s 14c

Best hours to sell

13:00 to 16:00 UTC

05:00 to 08:00 Pacific · index 1.096 · typical 59s 50c

Spread after the 5% cut

+65%

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: Rockscale Codby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	44s 67c	42s	17	0.825	3
01:00	17:00	43s 33c	33s 67c	18	0.971	3
02:00	18:00	36s 75c	28s 50c	30	0.792	2
03:00	19:00	38s 67c	36s 33c	38	0.929	3
04:00	20:00	39s	38s 25c	31	0.862	4
05:00	21:00	41s 20c	33s 20c	26	0.916	5
06:00	22:00	44s	36s 60c	27	0.984	5
07:00	23:00	44s	39s 50c	17	0.942	4
08:00	00:00	43s 25c	40s 75c	13	0.973	4
09:00	01:00	48s	48s	6	0.991	3
10:00	02:00	40s 67c	40s	12	0.943	3
11:00	03:00	45s 25c	44s 75c	11	1.000	4
12:00	04:00	59s 67c	59s 67c	18	1.046	3
13:00	05:00	59s 50c	59s 50c	18	1.074	4
14:00	06:00	63s 25c	63s 25c	5	1.141	4
15:00	07:00	55s 75c	55s 75c	16	1.074	4
16:00	08:00	57s 63c	57s	7	1.069	4
17:00	09:00	57s 42c	57s	7	1.072	4
18:00	10:00	51s	51s	16	1.043	4
19:00	11:00	51s	51s	15	1.053	4
20:00	12:00	54s 50c	52s 25c	14	1.083	4
21:00	13:00	53s	53s	9	1.052	3
22:00	14:00	51s 33c	43s 33c	12	1.055	3
23:00	15:00	53s 25c	43s 75c	19	1.110	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.pvp.alliance.us/6369 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.009	1.004	4
01:00	17:00	1.068	0.851	3
02:00	18:00	0.966	1.095	3
03:00	19:00	0.982	1.106	4
04:00	20:00	1.004	1.073	5
05:00	21:00	1.013	1.110	6
06:00	22:00	1.024	1.193	5
07:00	23:00	1.007	1.041	6
08:00	00:00	1.015	1.320	5
09:00	01:00	1.001	1.130	4
10:00	02:00	1.004	0.918	5
11:00	03:00	0.982	1.085	4
12:00	04:00	0.970	0.985	3
13:00	05:00	0.966	0.988	4
14:00	06:00	1.134	0.842	5
15:00	07:00	0.953	0.954	4
16:00	08:00	1.103	0.794	5
17:00	09:00	0.969	0.884	4
18:00	10:00	0.936	0.967	4
19:00	11:00	0.956	0.870	4
20:00	12:00	0.931	0.979	4
21:00	13:00	0.936	0.957	3
22:00	14:00	1.030	0.896	4
23:00	15:00	1.040	0.958	5

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 Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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: Rockscale Cod?: On PvP Alliance US, Recipe: Rockscale Cod is cheapest from 02:00 to 05:00 UTC (18:00 to 21:00 Pacific) and dearest from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC (05:00 to 08:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 65% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.