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

Across PvP Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 PvP Alliance 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 Alliance US, Alterac Swiss is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 51% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/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 0.862 · typical 20s 46c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 1.187 · typical 32s 47c

Spread after the 5% cut

+51%

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 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Alterac Swissby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	19s 98c	19s 98c	3	0.982	1
01:00	17:00	19s 98c	19s 98c	2	0.989	1
02:00	18:00	19s 98c	19s 98c	5	0.977	1
03:00	19:00	25s 26c	25s 26c	6	1.033	3
04:00	20:00	25s 26c	25s 26c	6	1.044	3
05:00	21:00	29s 87c	24s 99c	6	1.293	3
06:00	22:00	24s 99c	24s 99c	8	1.056	3
07:00	23:00	29s 99c	29s 90c	4	1.118	2
08:00	00:00	27s 50c	27s 50c	9	1.125	2
09:00	01:00	40s	40s	1	1.290	1
10:00	02:00	29s 90c	29s 90c	5	1.145	2
11:00	03:00	19s 80c	19s 80c	7	1.008	1
12:00	04:00	17s 80c	17s 80c	11	0.907	1
13:00	05:00	18s 90c	18s 90c	7	0.798	2
14:00	06:00	22s 50c	22s 50c	1	0.988	2
15:00	07:00	18s 90c	18s 89c	7	0.815	2
16:00	08:00	22s 50c	22s 49c	3	1.022	2
17:00	09:00	19s 99c	19s 98c	4	0.749	1
18:00	10:00	17s 80c	17s 80c	8	0.990	1
19:00	11:00	17s 80c	12s 80c	7	0.995	1
20:00	12:00	18s 90c	18s 89c	4	0.926	2
21:00	13:00	16s 47c	15s 80c	4	0.935	1
22:00	14:00	15s 40c	15s	3	0.875	1
23:00	15:00	17s 89c	17s 89c	4	0.939	2

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.alliance.us/8932 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.009	1.004	4
01:00	17:00	1.068	0.851	3
02:00	18:00	0.966	1.095	3
03:00	19:00	0.982	1.106	4
04:00	20:00	1.004	1.073	5
05:00	21:00	1.013	1.110	6
06:00	22:00	1.024	1.193	5
07:00	23:00	1.007	1.041	6
08:00	00:00	1.015	1.320	5
09:00	01:00	1.001	1.130	4
10:00	02:00	1.004	0.918	5
11:00	03:00	0.982	1.085	4
12:00	04:00	0.970	0.985	3
13:00	05:00	0.966	0.988	4
14:00	06:00	1.134	0.842	5
15:00	07:00	0.953	0.954	4
16:00	08:00	1.103	0.794	5
17:00	09:00	0.969	0.884	4
18:00	10:00	0.936	0.967	4
19:00	11:00	0.956	0.870	4
20:00	12:00	0.931	0.979	4
21:00	13:00	0.936	0.957	3
22:00	14:00	1.030	0.896	4
23:00	15:00	1.040	0.958	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 Alliance US, prices run cheapest around 20:00 UTC (12:00 Pacific), 6.9% under the daily average, and dearest around 14:00 UTC (06:00 Pacific), 13.4% 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 Alterac Swiss?: On PvP Alliance US, Alterac Swiss is cheapest from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC (07:00 to 10:00 Pacific) and dearest from 08:00 to 11:00 UTC (00:00 to 03:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 51% 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 Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.