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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 15:00 UTC (07:00 Pacific), 4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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, Midnight Mace is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 129% 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

12:00 to 15:00 UTC

04:00 to 07:00 Pacific · index 0.702 · typical 4g 13s 3c

Best hours to sell

01:00 to 04:00 UTC

17:00 to 20:00 Pacific · index 1.240 · typical 8g 25s 11c

Spread after the 5% cut

+129%

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.

Midnight Maceby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	6g 95s	6g 95s	5	1.156	2
01:00	17:00	10g 83s	9g 50s	4	1.370	1
02:00	18:00	6g 97s	5g 97s	4	1.174	2
03:00	19:00	6g 95s	5g 42s 50c	8	1.174	2
04:00	20:00	5g 62s 7c	4g 15s	8	1.017	2
05:00	21:00	5g 14s 45c	3g 87s 50c	9	0.984	2
06:00	22:00	4g 17s 92c	3g 77s 50c	13	0.880	2
07:00	23:00	4g 20s	3g 72s 50c	13	0.909	2
08:00	00:00	4g 14s 38c	3g 52s 50c	13	0.908	2
09:00	01:00	4g 30s	3g 76s 33c	10	0.806	3
10:00	02:00	4g 7s	3g 72s 67c	10	0.741	3
11:00	03:00	4g 9s 72c	3g 56s 33c	9	0.768	3
12:00	04:00	3g 93s 33c	3g 56s 33c	8	0.741	3
13:00	05:00	4g 24s 25c	3g 27s	7	0.673	2
14:00	06:00	4g 21s 50c	3g 44s 50c	7	0.691	2
15:00	07:00	4g 59s 50c	4g 9s 50c	4	0.762	2
16:00	08:00	8g 47s	7g 97s	4	1.249	2
17:00	09:00	8g 47s	7g 97s	3	1.279	2
18:00	10:00	7g 97s	7g 25s	4	1.187	2
19:00	11:00	7g 49s	7g 25s	3	1.084	2
20:00	12:00	6g 85s	6g 25s	3	1.073	2
21:00	13:00	6g 90s 67c	6g 37s 50c	5	1.106	2
22:00	14:00	6g 95s	6g 37s 50c	5	1.130	2
23:00	15:00	6g 94s 13c	6g 37s 50c	4	1.139	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.horde.us/936 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.013	0.982	4
01:00	17:00	1.147	0.879	3
02:00	18:00	1.064	0.830	5
03:00	19:00	1.030	1.055	5
04:00	20:00	1.002	1.036	5
05:00	21:00	1.017	1.083	3
06:00	22:00	1.006	1.122	5
07:00	23:00	0.994	1.215	3
08:00	00:00	0.987	1.175	4
09:00	01:00	1.004	1.136	5
10:00	02:00	0.979	1.135	5
11:00	03:00	0.980	1.075	5
12:00	04:00	0.972	1.113	5
13:00	05:00	0.974	1.012	4
14:00	06:00	0.975	0.986	4
15:00	07:00	0.960	0.954	3
16:00	08:00	0.986	0.904	4
17:00	09:00	0.989	0.864	4
18:00	10:00	1.018	0.856	4
19:00	11:00	0.981	0.879	4
20:00	12:00	0.972	0.900	4
21:00	13:00	0.979	0.927	4
22:00	14:00	0.985	0.921	3
23:00	15:00	0.984	0.958	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 15:00 UTC (07:00 Pacific), 4% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 14.7% 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 Midnight Mace?: On PvP Horde US, Midnight Mace is cheapest from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC (04:00 to 07:00 Pacific) and dearest from 01:00 to 04:00 UTC (17:00 to 20:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 129% 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.