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), 4.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 13.1% 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, Scaled Leather Bracers is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 161% 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

00:00 to 03:00 UTC

16:00 to 19:00 Pacific · index 0.762 · typical 50s 3c

Best hours to sell

10:00 to 13:00 UTC

02:00 to 05:00 Pacific · index 1.281 · typical 85s 48c

Spread after the 5% cut

+161%

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.

Scaled Leather Bracersby hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	37s 92c	27s 67c	13	0.640	3
01:00	17:00	54s 59c	34s	10	0.852	2
02:00	18:00	57s 58c	31s 50c	12	0.794	4
03:00	19:00	54s 91c	25s 33c	25	0.790	3
04:00	20:00	62s 13c	25s 33c	25	0.952	3
05:00	21:00	53s 88c	18s	26	1.176	2
06:00	22:00	65s 22c	25s 33c	25	1.073	3
07:00	23:00	47s 38c	18s	24	1.057	2
08:00	00:00	70s 25c	22s	23	1.196	3
09:00	01:00	61s 8c	21s 67c	23	1.023	3
10:00	02:00	85s 95c	47s 50c	19	1.250	4
11:00	03:00	89s 75c	47s 75c	18	1.363	4
12:00	04:00	80s 73c	47s 50c	20	1.229	4
13:00	05:00	83s 38c	47s 75c	18	1.237	4
14:00	06:00	80s 36c	47s 75c	17	1.167	4
15:00	07:00	70s 75c	47s 75c	16	1.010	4
16:00	08:00	79s 82c	57s	17	1.144	3
17:00	09:00	76s 67c	56s 67c	17	1.045	3
18:00	10:00	65s 19c	21s 33c	14	0.818	3
19:00	11:00	68s 22c	56s	15	0.871	3
20:00	12:00	66s 11c	56s	14	0.837	3
21:00	13:00	63s 67c	51s 33c	15	0.807	3
22:00	14:00	65s 53c	30s 67c	14	0.845	3
23:00	15:00	62s 83c	45s 67c	15	0.822	3

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/9829 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Horde US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.040	0.987	4
01:00	17:00	1.131	0.866	3
02:00	18:00	1.066	0.821	5
03:00	19:00	1.020	1.056	5
04:00	20:00	1.010	1.043	5
05:00	21:00	1.021	1.095	3
06:00	22:00	0.998	1.123	5
07:00	23:00	0.992	1.196	3
08:00	00:00	0.994	1.150	4
09:00	01:00	1.010	1.108	5
10:00	02:00	0.987	1.112	5
11:00	03:00	0.984	1.065	5
12:00	04:00	0.972	1.078	5
13:00	05:00	0.964	1.072	5
14:00	06:00	0.985	1.062	5
15:00	07:00	0.953	0.955	3
16:00	08:00	0.973	0.904	4
17:00	09:00	0.976	0.861	4
18:00	10:00	1.009	0.859	4
19:00	11:00	0.974	0.880	4
20:00	12:00	0.975	0.902	4
21:00	13:00	0.980	0.926	4
22:00	14:00	0.987	0.922	3
23:00	15:00	0.997	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), 4.7% under the daily average, and dearest around 01:00 UTC (17:00 Pacific), 13.1% 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 Scaled Leather Bracers?: On PvP Horde US, Scaled Leather Bracers is cheapest from 00:00 to 03:00 UTC (16:00 to 19:00 Pacific) and dearest from 10:00 to 13:00 UTC (02:00 to 05:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 161% 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.