Unless they're stolen you're out of luck!
Honestly I'd ask for one good chef's knife instead. Better one really good knife that you'll use a lot than a block full of junky ones that you won't. It depends a bit, of course, on your level of cooking interest and ability. I cook professionally and take knives very seriously (or at least as seriously as I take anything!
). Most of my knives are around the $200 mark (each) with an occasional one running over $300. But there are several knives in the roughly $100 range that I would be perfectly content using at work. Do you need that level of a knife? Hard to say. How often do you cook?
Short of the "one good knife" deal, I would suggest looking at the Forschner Fibrox line. Many pro cooks use them, and all of the house knives (ie the knives provided by the restaurant) where I work are Fibrox's. You could get the "Big Three" (Chef's knife, bread knife and paring knife) for a hundred or less. Those would do 98% of all the jobs in the kitchen with no problem.
One problem with block sets is that they include a knives with too much overlap, plus things that are just filler. For instance, many blocks will have, say, a 5" utility knife and a 6" utility knife. Why would you really need both? Another thing they like to throw in is cheap steels and junky scissors. At first blush it looks like you're getting more but in reality you're getting useless stuff that will just clutter your kitchen. I've never seen a cheap block set steel that wasn't complete crap- you're honestly better off honing on the back of a ceramic coffee mug than a cheap steel.
Here are what I consider useful knifes, as in everyday useful:
Chef's knife- In reality, you can use a chef's knife for almost every task. Most of your veggie prep (slicing, dicing, mincing, chopping, etc) is done with this knife. In a pinch you can also peel with it, and it will cut breads well if you keep it sharp.
Bread knife- Most people prefer a serrated bread knife for breads that have hard crusts, like French Batard and some rustic bread boules. If you bake your own bread you'll almost certainly want a decent bread knife.
Paring knife- Most people really like paring knives for cutting & cleaning fruits and veggies. I prefer a peeler for stuff like potatoes and carrots but many people use the paring knife.
Slicing knife- While not indispensible, I really like a long-ish (9" or longer) narrow, pointed slicing knife. I use the Japanese style called a sujihiki (or sujibiki). This is especially nice for stuff like turkey carving.
Santoku- I blame Ray Ray for the santoku craze. This knife really is a jack of all trades but master of none. Anything it will do, a chef's knife will do better. The only real purpose of this knife is for kitchens where you're really tight on space or for those intimidated by larger knives.
For most home cooks, anything beyond the first four I listed is just extra, although some are useful occasionally. If you break down a lot of your own meat a curved boning knife is handy. Even just trimming silver off of pork loins will make you wish you had one. Likewise, if you buy your chicken whole and cut it yourself you might like a butcher knife or a specialized poultry knife like a Honesuki.
But typically block sets don't include a bunch of useful knives- they pad the count with scissors, steels and multiple steak knives.
Just my $.02.
