An associate came up to me the other day and told me I should really stop driving my truck around and put it away as it is worth a lot of money. I have a 1997 F250 HD black/red two tone with a 7.3 gas engine. My grandfather bought it new to tow his camper to Alaska and back to Montana and it has made it's way down to me. I try to take good care of it and take it in whenever something comes up. I know the diesel version is worth a bunch but I'm not tracking the gas version being that valuable. Is it? It is worth noting that I wouldn't sell it even if it was but now he has me curious.
About 120k miles, recently rebuilt transmission.

 

IIRC the gas version is a 7.5L (460 cid)

It is a good/basic truck to have, no doubt. I have a 97 HD, but w/ the 7.3L Diesel - it has almost 300k miles on it. Great "working" truck to have.

I would definitely say that it is worth keeping, but who knows about the "collectors item" part. Maybe yours is worth $10k at that mileage. That also assumes a crew cab, 4WD. and excellent condition (body and paint condition, air conditioning, wiring, brakes, suspension, steering, cab and bed mounts, oil leaks, etc). I suppose other options could improve the value somewhat.

The transmission being recently rebuilt could be a good thing - just depends on the reputation of where it was rebuilt. I have had a few bad transmission rebuilds over the years.

Just my 2 cents.

 

It's not near old enough to even be considered a collector's item.Trucks never really reach as high of collector's status like a sports car or a rare two door coupe would. The only truck I would like to have as a collector truck is a 1978 Dodge Lil Red Express. I would even be happy with a 79 model too.