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% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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, Willow Boots is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 205% 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

09:00 to 12:00 UTC

01:00 to 04:00 Pacific · index 0.840 · typical 9s 63c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 Pacific · index 1.392 · typical 15s 40c

Spread after the 5% cut

+205%

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.

Willow Bootsby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	8s 33c	3s 33c	52	0.904	3
01:00	17:00	9s	3s 50c	46	0.915	2
02:00	18:00	9s 42c	3s 25c	50	0.803	4
03:00	19:00	11s 96c	3s 25c	53	1.066	4
04:00	20:00	10s 42c	4s 60c	46	0.883	5
05:00	21:00	19s 69c	5s 33c	40	1.629	3
06:00	22:00	18s 17c	7s 40c	51	1.441	5
07:00	23:00	8s 33c	3s 33c	59	1.105	3
08:00	00:00	12s 94c	7s	47	1.080	4
09:00	01:00	8s 96c	4s	42	0.740	5
10:00	02:00	11s 4c	5s	45	1.035	5
11:00	03:00	8s 90c	5s 40c	41	0.747	5
12:00	04:00	10s 81c	4s 80c	42	0.908	5
13:00	05:00	13s 11c	5s	42	1.045	4
14:00	06:00	13s	5s	40	1.044	4
15:00	07:00	15s	3s	41	1.271	3
16:00	08:00	13s 73c	4s 25c	39	1.139	4
17:00	09:00	11s 52c	4s	38	0.886	4
18:00	10:00	12s 95c	4s 25c	41	1.029	4
19:00	11:00	11s 18c	3s 50c	46	0.908	4
20:00	12:00	11s 8c	3s 50c	48	0.896	4
21:00	13:00	9s 88c	3s 25c	50	0.817	4
22:00	14:00	10s 60c	3s	58	0.823	3
23:00	15:00	10s 50c	3s 50c	58	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.pvp.horde.us/6537 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.013	0.982	4
01:00	17:00	1.147	0.879	3
02:00	18:00	1.064	0.830	5
03:00	19:00	1.030	1.055	5
04:00	20:00	1.002	1.036	5
05:00	21:00	1.017	1.083	3
06:00	22:00	1.006	1.122	5
07:00	23:00	0.994	1.215	3
08:00	00:00	0.987	1.175	4
09:00	01:00	1.004	1.136	5
10:00	02:00	0.979	1.135	5
11:00	03:00	0.980	1.075	5
12:00	04:00	0.972	1.113	5
13:00	05:00	0.974	1.012	4
14:00	06:00	0.975	0.986	4
15:00	07:00	0.960	0.954	3
16:00	08:00	0.986	0.904	4
17:00	09:00	0.989	0.864	4
18:00	10:00	1.018	0.856	4
19:00	11:00	0.981	0.879	4
20:00	12:00	0.972	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.979	0.927	4
22:00	14:00	0.985	0.921	3
23:00	15:00	0.984	0.958	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% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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 Willow Boots?: On PvP Horde US, Willow Boots is cheapest from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC (01:00 to 04:00 Pacific) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (21:00 to 00:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 205% 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.