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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 22:00 UTC (14:00 Pacific), 3.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 4.1% 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, Pattern: Deviate Scale Belt is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 113% 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

04:00 to 07:00 UTC

20:00 to 23:00 Pacific · index 0.784 · typical 5s 95c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 Pacific · index 1.351 · typical 11s 96c

Spread after the 5% cut

+113%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

provisional

Provisional: the thinnest hour has 3 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days; 10 makes it settled.

Pattern: Deviate Scale Beltby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	13s 5c	7s	66	1.026	4
01:00	17:00	15s 14c	7s	75	1.547	3
02:00	18:00	9s 3c	6s 20c	73	1.034	5
03:00	19:00	11s 72c	6s	89	1.473	5
04:00	20:00	6s 33c	5s 60c	103	0.762	5
05:00	21:00	5s 33c	5s	106	0.808	3
06:00	22:00	6s 20c	5s 40c	109	0.781	5
07:00	23:00	8s 8c	5s 25c	115	0.916	4
08:00	00:00	8s 75c	5s	81	1.205	4
09:00	01:00	8s 70c	5s 20c	84	1.094	5
10:00	02:00	5s 75c	5s 25c	89	0.875	4
11:00	03:00	21s 33c	21s	63	0.886	6
12:00	04:00	24s 60c	24s 20c	58	0.976	5
13:00	05:00	24s 29c	18s 20c	55	0.951	5
14:00	06:00	24s 20c	17s	51	0.977	5
15:00	07:00	6s 13c	5s	53	0.962	4
16:00	08:00	24s 20c	17s	47	1.039	5
17:00	09:00	20s 87c	17s	45	0.986	5
18:00	10:00	17s 20c	16s 80c	47	0.938	5
19:00	11:00	17s 22c	13s	50	0.949	5
20:00	12:00	17s 88c	13s	47	1.031	5
21:00	13:00	17s 82c	9s 40c	49	1.017	5
22:00	14:00	6s	5s 50c	47	0.947	4
23:00	15:00	9s 40c	7s 20c	56	0.820	5

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/6476 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.988	1.000	5
01:00	17:00	1.041	0.953	4
02:00	18:00	1.031	0.934	6
03:00	19:00	1.036	1.019	6
04:00	20:00	0.998	1.082	6
05:00	21:00	1.002	1.151	4
06:00	22:00	0.983	1.190	6
07:00	23:00	1.008	1.208	4
08:00	00:00	1.027	1.134	5
09:00	01:00	1.035	1.102	6
10:00	02:00	0.995	1.058	5
11:00	03:00	0.989	1.154	6
12:00	04:00	0.984	1.020	5
13:00	05:00	0.980	0.990	5
14:00	06:00	0.984	0.962	5
15:00	07:00	0.997	0.918	4
16:00	08:00	1.000	0.867	5
17:00	09:00	0.986	0.869	5
18:00	10:00	1.027	0.858	5
19:00	11:00	1.002	0.865	5
20:00	12:00	0.992	0.903	5
21:00	13:00	0.973	0.923	5
22:00	14:00	0.966	0.889	4
23:00	15:00	0.973	0.949	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 Horde US, prices run cheapest around 22:00 UTC (14:00 Pacific), 3.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 4.1% 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 Pattern: Deviate Scale Belt?: On PvP Horde US, Pattern: Deviate Scale Belt is cheapest from 04:00 to 07:00 UTC (20:00 to 23:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 113% 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.