[Walt Fricke]

You should be able to tell by its appearance how good or bad a gasket is. There aren't all that many gaskets as such. The intake manifold gaskets, and the exhaust gaskets, should be just fine. The crankcase breather gasket is probably fine. So is the intermediate shaft cover plate gasket, though you have a 3.6? I don't know if they have this gasket. You can inspect the gasket which holds the chain box to the case to see what you think, Maybe use a little gasket sealer on it. Same with gaskets where the cam meets the chain box. And inspect the gaskets for the chain box cover plates. Those, too, could be replaced later if you guessed wrong and didn't use some goop. If you have a 3.6 in there you don't have any oil sump plate gaskets to worry about.

I think the cost is in all the rubber (or whatever) seals. The through bolt O rings simply have to be replaced as they get torn up. The O rings on the oil return tubes should be fine. All the seals in the oiling system should be fine - they are all captured in those milled recesses and don't wear. The front and rear crank seals should also still be fine if they have that little mileage on them.

The valve cover gaskets you can reuse. If they start leaking too much, you can easily enough replace them in the car.

A shop is naturally going to purchase a full gasket set. Not worth their (or your) while to fuss around making decisions and adding sealants and so on with used stuff. And certainly not taking the risk that the car will come back with a demand that the leaks be stopped. But you are not a shop.