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

Across Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% 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 Normal Alliance EU 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 Normal Alliance EU, Staff of Horrors is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 11% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: Normal Alliance EU. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/normal/alliance/eu

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

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

09:00 to 12:00 CET · index 0.971 · typical 31s 44c

Best hours to sell

05:00 to 08:00 UTC

06:00 to 09:00 CET · index 1.048 · typical 35s 64c

Spread after the 5% cut

+11%

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.

Staff of Horrorsby hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	01:00	36s 50c	35s 75c	51	1.015	4
01:00	02:00	38s	38s	45	1.035	3
02:00	03:00	28s	25s	63	0.984	3
03:00	04:00	36s	35s 50c	44	1.026	4
04:00	05:00	27s	27s	55	1.002	2
05:00	06:00	43s 50c	43s 50c	20	1.090	2
06:00	07:00	27s 67c	27s 33c	45	0.999	3
07:00	08:00	35s 75c	35s 50c	29	1.057	4
08:00	09:00	31s	30s 25c	28	0.966	4
09:00	10:00	31s	30s	27	0.975	4
10:00	11:00	32s 33c	31s 67c	22	0.973	3
11:00	12:00	32s 33c	31s 67c	24	0.983	3
12:00	13:00	31s 67c	30s 67c	28	0.972	3
13:00	14:00	31s 67c	31s 67c	34	0.981	3
14:00	15:00	38s 75c	38s 25c	27	0.996	4
15:00	16:00	38s 75c	38s 50c	29	1.001	4
16:00	17:00	38s 63c	36s 50c	33	1.005	4
17:00	18:00	37s 25c	36s 50c	38	0.970	4
18:00	19:00	36s 75c	35s 75c	41	0.967	4
19:00	20:00	38s	38s	36	0.997	3
20:00	21:00	36s 75c	36s 50c	40	0.986	4
21:00	22:00	36s 50c	36s	41	0.988	4
22:00	23:00	38s 17c	34s 67c	35	1.025	3
23:00	00:00	36s 50c	35s 75c	40	1.006	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.normal.alliance.eu/880 on the API.

The whole market by hour · Normal Alliance EU

Hour (UTC)	CET	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	01:00	0.982	1.174	5
01:00	02:00	0.998	1.162	4
02:00	03:00	1.064	1.083	4
03:00	04:00	1.022	1.012	5
04:00	05:00	1.004	1.010	3
05:00	06:00	1.042	0.760	3
06:00	07:00	1.029	0.921	3
07:00	08:00	1.016	0.884	4
08:00	09:00	1.011	0.888	4
09:00	10:00	1.015	0.905	5
10:00	11:00	1.021	0.813	4
11:00	12:00	1.016	0.874	4
12:00	13:00	1.010	0.911	4
13:00	14:00	0.995	0.968	4
14:00	15:00	1.005	1.013	4
15:00	16:00	0.982	1.043	4
16:00	17:00	1.000	1.003	4
17:00	18:00	0.963	1.085	4
18:00	19:00	0.952	1.128	4
19:00	20:00	0.979	1.033	3
20:00	21:00	0.957	1.129	4
21:00	22:00	0.963	1.133	4
22:00	23:00	0.987	1.055	3
23:00	00:00	0.986	1.013	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 Normal Alliance EU, prices run cheapest around 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET), 4.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 02:00 UTC (03:00 CET), 6.4% 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 Staff of Horrors?: On Normal Alliance EU, Staff of Horrors is cheapest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (09:00 to 12:00 CET) and dearest from 05:00 to 08:00 UTC (06:00 to 09:00 CET). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 11% 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 Normal Alliance EU through the night fills the gaps.