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), 2.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 3.8% 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, Shimmering Trousers is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific) and dearest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 219% 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

14:00 to 17:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 Pacific · index 0.730 · typical 13s 3c

Best hours to sell

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 Pacific · index 1.326 · typical 36s 38c

Spread after the 5% cut

+219%

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.

Shimmering Trousersby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	34s 81c	14s 25c	33	1.281	4
01:00	17:00	41s 48c	16s	23	1.373	3
02:00	18:00	32s 84c	13s	31	1.325	5
03:00	19:00	24s 66c	15s	35	1.099	5
04:00	20:00	20s 45c	12s 60c	37	0.974	5
05:00	21:00	13s 87c	10s	46	1.005	3
06:00	22:00	15s 97c	12s 80c	43	0.803	5
07:00	23:00	17s 92c	13s 75c	43	0.894	4
08:00	00:00	15s 50c	10s	44	1.021	4
09:00	01:00	19s 46c	13s	37	0.953	5
10:00	02:00	37s 88c	29s	30	1.431	5
11:00	03:00	16s 53c	11s	35	0.892	5
12:00	04:00	15s 20c	11s	34	0.782	5
13:00	05:00	15s 78c	10s	30	0.834	4
14:00	06:00	13s 25c	10s	29	0.768	4
15:00	07:00	11s 83c	9s 75c	28	0.748	4
16:00	08:00	14s	12s 80c	22	0.675	5
17:00	09:00	17s 17c	14s	23	0.806	5
18:00	10:00	15s 66c	13s 20c	22	0.759	5
19:00	11:00	17s 52c	13s	24	0.849	5
20:00	12:00	20s 4c	13s 20c	26	0.992	5
21:00	13:00	34s 71c	26s	29	1.265	5
22:00	14:00	19s 69c	10s 25c	33	1.166	4
23:00	15:00	33s 70c	26s	31	1.307	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/6568 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	0.989	1.002	5
01:00	17:00	1.038	0.955	4
02:00	18:00	1.027	0.936	6
03:00	19:00	1.027	1.012	6
04:00	20:00	0.985	1.072	6
05:00	21:00	0.995	1.116	4
06:00	22:00	0.980	1.167	6
07:00	23:00	1.006	1.182	4
08:00	00:00	1.032	1.117	5
09:00	01:00	1.036	1.083	6
10:00	02:00	0.998	1.048	5
11:00	03:00	0.997	1.123	6
12:00	04:00	0.994	1.123	6
13:00	05:00	0.986	0.984	5
14:00	06:00	0.988	0.961	5
15:00	07:00	0.999	0.917	4
16:00	08:00	1.001	0.868	5
17:00	09:00	0.987	0.874	5
18:00	10:00	1.025	0.864	5
19:00	11:00	1.002	0.875	5
20:00	12:00	0.988	0.920	5
21:00	13:00	0.974	0.934	5
22:00	14:00	0.972	0.904	4
23:00	15:00	0.974	0.963	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), 2.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 3.8% 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 Shimmering Trousers?: On PvP Horde US, Shimmering Trousers is cheapest from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 Pacific) and dearest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 219% 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.