How long does it take Auctioneer's market prices to catch up to changes in market conditions?

E.g. for a long time Auctioneer was telling me dream shards were worth almost 10g, when the auction house was overflowing with shards for 4g and less. (Of course, now Auctioneer is looking pretty smart, because prices have come back up.) Or the few weeks when the herb farmers disappeared and any Northrend herbs were selling for 2-3g instead of .7 or less.

Does it use a lifetime average? An average only over the last X days/weeks? One weighted more toward recent prices?

Another question about estimated "market prices". Often I will be looking at this new green armor piece I picked up and see Auctioneer says "Market price: 100g". Then I look at the next line and see "Number seen: 0". Oh. Click *Disenchant*. Even if there are just a few historical prices, that just means someone decided to list a "Happy Fun Rock" for 200g just for giggles. How many price samples do you want Auctioneer to have before you have any confidence that the estimated "market price" has any validity?

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