First, are these things even legal? A friend of mine recently moved and stored a bunch of his stuff at my place. He finally is "letting me" sell all his crap, so as I was sorting it last night and figuring out what to throw and put on the various boards to sell, I came across 2 auto knives.

I remember him getting these in kit form "for collectors only" through the mail, must be 20 years ago now. They are in prefect shape and knowing him, never cut a thing with them. One looks like the classic switchblade, the other a stilletto that pops out the front.

The blades are sharp and function fine. I didn't check out the kind of steel for the blade and didn't see a name either. But it could be there, I'm just not much of a knife guy.

Any idea what's the worth on these?

It might be a State by State legal issue for most but active military personnel and law enforcement officers generally have the right to purchase, possess and carry. As to their worth it could go from virtually worthless to several hundred dollars depending on the maker and the condition. Post some good photos and maybe somebody will know what they are.

It's state by state and ownership and carry also are often two separate issues. Some states they are legal to own but you can't carry them.

California has possibly the weirdest law:

Excerpted from California Penal Code 635k:
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"For the purposes of this section, "switchblade knife" means a knife having the appearance of a pocketknife and includes a spring-blade knife, snap-blade knife, gravity knife or any other similar type knife, the blade or blades of which are two or more inches in length and which can be released automatically by a flick of a button, pressure on the handle, flip of the wrist or other mechanical device, or is released by the weight of the blade or by any type of mechanism whatsoever.

So if it's under two inches you can carry a switchblade in Cali. How they picked two inches as the limit is beyond me but if anybody knows the history of that I'd be much obliged. Reckon it was just arbitrary like most weapons laws.

This may also be hearsay, but the reason I heard that states have a 2 (or 2 1/2) inch law is that is how far back the heart is, so a stab to the heart wouldn't be as immediately lethal.

Or so I've heard anyway.

the 2-2/2 inch length would have been about right to reach the heart of most Americans 30-40 years ago but with morbid obesity being so common today, you would need a bayonet to reach from skin to heart today!