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

Across PvP Horde US, prices run cheapest around 06:00 UTC (22:00 Pacific), 3.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 09:00 UTC (01:00 Pacific), 4.6% 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, Fortified Cloak is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 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 126% 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

21:00 to 00:00 UTC

13:00 to 16:00 Pacific · index 0.818 · typical 16s 98c

Best hours to sell

08:00 to 11:00 UTC

00:00 to 03:00 Pacific · index 1.181 · typical 20s 46c

Spread after the 5% cut

+126%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

provisional

Provisional: the thinnest hour has 3 days of scans behind it over the last 28 days; 10 makes it settled.

Fortified Cloakby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	17s 94c	8s 50c	13	0.894	4
01:00	17:00	21s 43c	14s	13	0.986	3
02:00	18:00	19s 80c	9s 60c	16	0.946	5
03:00	19:00	18s 80c	9s	18	0.903	5
04:00	20:00	18s 70c	9s 20c	18	0.912	5
05:00	21:00	13s 63c	6s 33c	16	0.883	3
06:00	22:00	20s 20c	8s 20c	19	0.994	5
07:00	23:00	15s 85c	8s 25c	15	0.942	4
08:00	00:00	22s 95c	6s	16	1.368	4
09:00	01:00	19s 78c	8s	16	1.135	5
10:00	02:00	18s 66c	8s	16	1.040	5
11:00	03:00	19s 75c	8s	13	1.097	5
12:00	04:00	19s 60c	8s	13	1.110	5
13:00	05:00	18s 97c	8s	13	1.090	5
14:00	06:00	17s 93c	8s	13	1.074	5
15:00	07:00	19s 53c	8s	13	1.214	5
16:00	08:00	19s	8s	13	1.186	5
17:00	09:00	21s 79c	11s 67c	10	1.091	6
18:00	10:00	21s 27c	12s 80c	11	0.937	5
19:00	11:00	19s 1c	12s 80c	12	0.883	5
20:00	12:00	18s 30c	10s	12	0.860	5
21:00	13:00	18s 45c	10s 60c	14	0.852	5
22:00	14:00	14s 87c	6s 75c	16	0.762	4
23:00	15:00	17s 63c	8s 40c	16	0.839	5

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/9812 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.010	1.017	5
01:00	17:00	1.021	0.986	4
02:00	18:00	1.045	0.943	6
03:00	19:00	1.024	1.018	6
04:00	20:00	0.978	1.071	6
05:00	21:00	0.969	1.112	4
06:00	22:00	0.962	1.143	6
07:00	23:00	1.004	1.134	4
08:00	00:00	1.034	1.071	5
09:00	01:00	1.046	1.030	6
10:00	02:00	0.991	1.063	6
11:00	03:00	0.983	1.034	6
12:00	04:00	0.980	1.030	6
13:00	05:00	0.977	1.013	6
14:00	06:00	0.990	1.000	6
15:00	07:00	0.997	0.988	5
16:00	08:00	1.022	0.966	6
17:00	09:00	0.996	0.867	5
18:00	10:00	1.036	0.869	5
19:00	11:00	1.005	0.884	5
20:00	12:00	0.989	0.923	5
21:00	13:00	0.980	0.954	5
22:00	14:00	0.970	0.915	4
23:00	15:00	0.990	0.969	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 Horde US, prices run cheapest around 06:00 UTC (22:00 Pacific), 3.8% under the daily average, and dearest around 09:00 UTC (01:00 Pacific), 4.6% 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 Fortified Cloak?: On PvP Horde US, Fortified Cloak is cheapest from 21:00 to 00:00 UTC (13:00 to 16:00 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 126% 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.