Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets

[Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets] are used like currency to purchase Darkmoon Faire prizes from Gelvas Grimegate, the Darkmoon Faire prize vendor NPC. The Darkmoon Faire tickets are soulbound, so you cannot trade them. They can be saved up, they stack in stacks of 200. The tickets are the same for any Darkmoon Faire location, and can be earned and spent at any Darkmoon Faire location.

Prizes purchased with tickets

Gelvas Grimegate sells the following items in exchange for your tickets:

[Darkmoon Flower] costs 5 tickets and is available at level 6
[Darkmoon Storage Box] costs 50 tickets and is available at level 6
[Minor Darkmoon Prize] costs 5 tickets and is available at level 15
[Last Month's Mutton] costs 10 tickets and is available at level 25
[Lesser Darkmoon Prize] costs 12 tickets and is available at level 30
[Greater Darkmoon Prize] costs 40 tickets and is available at level 45
[Schematic: Steam Tonk Controller] costs 40 tickets and is available at level 45
[Last Year's Mutton] costs 50 tickets and is available at level 45
[Orb of the Darkmoon] costs 1200 tickets and is available at level 60
[Amulet of the Darkmoon] costs 1200 tickets and is available at level 60

You won't even be offered the prizes that are above your level, you won't see them on the list of items you can purchase.

(See Darkmoon Faire Prize review for a subjective evaluation of the prizes.)
(See Foodfight for more food weapons.)

Earning tickets

The easiest way to earn five Darkmoon Faire Tickets is by finding the Darkmoon Faire Herald and doing the Darkmoon Faire quest (find the Darkmoon Faire and locate the prize turn-in NPC). Five tickets is enough for a [Minor Darkmoon Prize], which is level appropriate for a character in the teens to low twenties. This quest gives 75 rep with the Darkmoon Faire (82 rep for human characters, with 10% reputation bonus). This low amount can alter your availability of turn-ins (see following); one way around this is to hold off completing this quest in until after you have turned-in your items.

The primary way to earn Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets is to provide Darkmoon Faire NPCs with requested items in exchange for tickets. You earn tickets by turning in animal parts or some tradeskill goods (see list following). These are repeatable quests, but will only be available to you depending on your level, and as your reputation with Darkmoon Faire increases, easier turn-ins are drop off and are no longer offered. Each turn-in gives 250 reputation with Darkmoon Faire (275 for human characters, with their 10% reputation bonus). This means that every turn-in consumes a limited number of turn-in slots (for all except the top level turn-in, which does not cut off). To maximize the value of your turn-ins and so you are not stuck with items you can no longer turn in for tickets, note when each item turn-in cuts off.

You can turn in quest items produced by a profession even if you do not have that profession; this is a change from past WoW versions. There are only turn in quests for blacksmithing, engineering, and leatherworking, but there are also farmable animal part turn-ins. Each kind of turn-in, by profession or animal parts, is offered by a different Darkmoon Faire NPC. Look around the Faire for the one you want, they are easy to find.

The following list shows the animal parts turn-in, then the blacksmithing turn-in, then the engineering turn-in, then the leather working turn-in as a series of tiers arranged by availability and cutoff. For each of the following tiers, you may turn in any set of the listed items as a single turn-in transaction. Each tier also lists the number of Darkmoon Faire tickets given as a reward, the required character level, the reputation cap, the total number of possible turn-ins, and the possible number of turn-ins if you have already completed the earlier tiers, both for normal reputation gain and for humans with a 10% reputation bonus.

Tier 1 - Yields 1 DMF Ticket, requires level 1, cuts off at 500 reputation.
You can do 2 turn-ins, 2 as a human; 2 if you do the herald quest first, 2 as a human)
Per turn-in:

05 x [Small Furry Paw]
10 x [Coarse Weightstone]
05 x [Copper Modulator]
06 x [Embossed Leather Boots]

Tier 2 - Yields 4 DMF Ticket, requires level 10, cuts off at 1100 reputation.
You can do 5 total or 3 more turn-ins, 4 total or 2 more as a human; 5 total or 3 more if you do the herald quest first, 4 total or 2 more as a human)
Per turn-in:

05 x [Torn Bear Pelt]
07 x [Heavy Grinding Stone]
07 x [Whirring Bronze Gizmo]
03 x [Toughened Leather Armor]

Tier 3 - Yields 8 DMF Ticket, requires level 20, cuts off at 1700 reputation.
You can do 7 total or 2 more turn-ins, 7 total or 3 more as a human; 7 total or 2 more if you do the herald quest first, 6 total or 2 more as a human)
Per turn-in:

05 x [Soft Bushy Tail]
03 x [Green Iron Bracers]
36 x [Green Firework]
03 x [Barbaric Harness]

Tier 4 - Yields 12 DMF Ticket, requires level 30, cuts off at 2500 reputation.
You can do 10 total or 3 more turn-ins, 10 total or 3 more as a human; 10 total or 3 more if you do the herald quest first, 9 total or 3 more as a human)
Per turn-in:

05 x [Vibrant Plume]
01 x [Big Black Mace]
06 x [Mechanical Repair Kit]
01 x [Turtle Scale Leggings]

Tier 5 - Yields 20 DMF Ticket, requires level 40, unlimited.
You can do any number of these tier 5 turn-ins.
Per turn-in:

10 x [Evil Bat Eye]
10 x [Glowing Scorpid Blood]
08 x [Dense Grinding Stone]
06 x [Thorium Widget]
08 x [Rugged Armor Kit]

You will be offered all of the quests in a tier, if the tier is available to you. Each turn-in is independent. You can mix and match turn-ins until you reach the rep limits.

The highest level quests (tier 5) remain available, although they are implemented as two sets of quests, one set that gives reputation that does cut off and is replaced by another set that does not give reputation and does not cut off.

Since the number of turn-ins is limited, if you want to earn as many tickets as possible, do the highest tier available to you, and since Tier 5 is unlimited, do it last. Even consider holding off doing low value turn-ins and save the turn-in slot for better turn-ins. In particular, consider skipping the tier 1 quests, which yield only one ticket each.

Ticket transactions as quests

Both the item turn-ins to earn tickets and the ticket turn-ins to purchase prizes are implemented as quests. So, although the Darkmoon Faire Ticket works kind of like currency, and the ticket turn-in NPC works kind of like a vendor, quest completion changes happen in a dialog box when you turn-in items in exchange for tickets or purchase prizes with tickets. For instance, each time you transact, the dialog closes, so, unlike a vendor, where you can purchase a stack of something just by clicking on the item, the Darkmoon Faire Ticket turn-ins require a separate dialog with the NPC for each turn-in. Also, to do a turn-in to earn tickets or use tickets for a purchase, you will have to have an open slot in your quest log in order to accept and then complete the quest.

See the item article, Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket, for a full list of ticket earning quests and ticket purchase quest; the same transactions as are listed above, in quest format.