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, Firestarter is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 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 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

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 Pacific · index 0.942 · typical 53s 78c

Best hours to sell

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 Pacific · index 1.110 · typical 1g 11s 22c

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.

Firestarterby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	1g 3s	1g 3s	17	1.087	3
01:00	17:00	1g 39s 65c	1g 38s	10	1.171	2
02:00	18:00	91s	87s	24	1.071	4
03:00	19:00	90s 50c	85s 50c	32	1.085	4
04:00	20:00	86s 75c	59s	32	1.060	4
05:00	21:00	32s	31s	35	1.024	2
06:00	22:00	72s 50c	48s	34	1.020	4
07:00	23:00	68s	59s	35	0.965	3
08:00	00:00	34s 13c	31s 33c	43	0.994	3
09:00	01:00	62s 49c	48s 25c	31	0.983	4
10:00	02:00	54s 25c	48s	32	0.940	4
11:00	03:00	53s 60c	48s 50c	29	0.937	4
12:00	04:00	53s 50c	39s 50c	29	0.949	4
13:00	05:00	52s 43c	45s 75c	28	0.951	4
14:00	06:00	48s 50c	45s 25c	24	0.937	4
15:00	07:00	48s 50c	44s 75c	25	0.961	4
16:00	08:00	48s 50c	45s	24	0.989	4
17:00	09:00	47s 25c	41s 75c	22	0.999	4
18:00	10:00	46s	41s 50c	19	0.993	4
19:00	11:00	82s 73c	79s 20c	15	0.989	5
20:00	12:00	80s 80c	79s	17	0.978	5
21:00	13:00	92s 5c	90s 75c	19	0.968	4
22:00	14:00	40s 83c	32s	24	0.937	3
23:00	15:00	91s 75c	89s 50c	19	1.012	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/8184 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 Firestarter?: On PvP Horde US, Firestarter is cheapest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 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 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.