If you buy your ticket in advance and use the per-purchased ticket to board the bus you only have to pay $3.50 for the bus ticket.
The exception to that is when you ride the light rail.
You can buy your light rail all day pass for $3.50 even if you purchase it 10 seconds before boarding the train.
I found it rather odd when I saw that they are installing Valley Metro Ticket machines at the LINK bus stops which have high speed buses with a limited number of stops to take people from Chandler and Mesa to the light rail train station in Mesa.
I saw this Valley Metro ticket machine at the Valley Metro bus stop on Chandler Blvd and Arizona Avenue on the northeast corner of the intersection.
