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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 5.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 10.5% 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, Sage's Sash is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 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 133% 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

15:00 to 18:00 UTC

07:00 to 10:00 Pacific · index 0.777 · typical 15s 52c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

21:00 to 00:00 Pacific · index 1.308 · typical 30s 60c

Spread after the 5% cut

+133%

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.

Sage's Sashby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	27s	22s 33c	26	1.049	3
01:00	17:00	30s 9c	28s 50c	16	1.012	2
02:00	18:00	28s	26s 25c	16	1.189	4
03:00	19:00	28s 25c	20s 50c	25	1.208	4
04:00	20:00	27s 70c	20s 50c	24	1.185	4
05:00	21:00	18s 60c	10s	43	1.104	2
06:00	22:00	28s 17c	13s 75c	28	1.220	4
07:00	23:00	45s 3c	22s	33	1.599	3
08:00	00:00	17s 87c	12s 33c	37	0.967	3
09:00	01:00	24s 34c	13s	27	1.027	4
10:00	02:00	23s 65c	13s	25	1.010	4
11:00	03:00	23s 30c	13s	22	0.986	4
12:00	04:00	22s 88c	13s	24	0.998	4
13:00	05:00	16s 97c	12s 50c	22	0.825	4
14:00	06:00	16s 16c	12s 50c	22	0.789	4
15:00	07:00	15s 35c	12s 50c	22	0.761	4
16:00	08:00	15s 79c	12s 50c	22	0.789	4
17:00	09:00	15s 42c	12s 50c	23	0.780	4
18:00	10:00	15s 88c	12s 25c	23	0.792	4
19:00	11:00	15s 76c	12s	23	0.796	4
20:00	12:00	23s 77c	18s 40c	20	0.920	5
21:00	13:00	25s 87c	20s 50c	19	0.980	4
22:00	14:00	16s 6c	11s 33c	23	0.889	3
23:00	15:00	27s 75c	23s 75c	19	1.124	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/6611 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.057	1.003	4
01:00	17:00	1.105	0.895	3
02:00	18:00	1.071	0.813	5
03:00	19:00	1.040	1.050	5
04:00	20:00	1.018	1.052	5
05:00	21:00	1.022	1.104	3
06:00	22:00	0.990	1.125	5
07:00	23:00	0.979	1.192	3
08:00	00:00	0.978	1.149	4
09:00	01:00	1.002	1.092	5
10:00	02:00	0.979	1.082	5
11:00	03:00	0.968	1.031	5
12:00	04:00	0.958	1.030	5
13:00	05:00	0.946	1.006	5
14:00	06:00	0.960	0.983	5
15:00	07:00	0.988	0.951	4
16:00	08:00	0.995	0.883	5
17:00	09:00	0.983	0.937	5
18:00	10:00	1.011	0.961	5
19:00	11:00	0.994	1.004	5
20:00	12:00	0.970	0.889	4
21:00	13:00	0.988	0.911	4
22:00	14:00	0.989	0.911	3
23:00	15:00	1.009	0.946	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 13:00 UTC (05:00 Pacific), 5.4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 10.5% 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 Sage's Sash?: On PvP Horde US, Sage's Sash is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 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 133% 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.