Is Teknika a store brand or was it just another cheap brand that showed up at discount stores? Over the years, I've had a few Teknika branded TV from the late '70's-early '80's. The one Teknika console I had looked like a Wells-Gardner built TV. The few portables I had looked Japanese built.

Today, I was at the flea market and spotted a white plastic semi-space age looking 13" Teknika color TV from '76. I figured I could get it for $5-$10; but, WRONG. I asked the lady at the counter about the TV and she said that it was owned by an 85 year old woman who had some sort of matching pole stand to go with the TV and she wanted $75 for the TV and the stand. I told the lady at the counter that the price was much too high. She told me that they tried to tell the owner that she'd never get that much for the TV; but, she's one of those "know it all" types who's convinced the TV is worth that much.

I thought to myself, "She probably 'researched it' online and found some joker asking that much for one; so, hers is now worth that much. Maybe after it's still sitting there months, or years, from now; she might get the message.

At least her TV was in good shape and the white cabinet had not turned yellow. I don't know about the working condition; but, most of those mid '70's solid state 13" color TV's had good pictures.

I'm pretty sure "another cheap brand that showd up at discount stores", as I remember seeing them at different chains in this area back in the day.
I had a friend that owned a used/consignment store for years, and most, but not all, older people were the WORSE to deal with. They would often have unrealistic expectations of what items are worth. Yes... you may have paid X amount of dollars when you purchased it, but today no-one wants that item, hence the price would be lower. Couches used to be another itme we hated. Yes.. it may be in like new shape, a major name brand, but.. it's also horribly ugly. We finally had to be blunt, because she knew if we had too much overpriced items, they would sit in the store... taking up room.. forever.

IIRC, the TV parts distributor in town sold Teknika in 1980 at wholesale for the little shops who were not getting Philcos, Admirals, etc anymore. It was Korean-made at that time.

I saw the matching stereo to that in an antique store, they wanted $300. It was the round space age deal with the white stand. Disco ball cocaine straw:smoke:

I'm pretty sure "another cheap brand that showd up at discount stores", as I remember seeing them at different chains in this area back in the day.
I had a friend that owned a used/consignment store for years, and most, but not all, older people were the WORSE to deal with. They would often have unrealistic expectations of what items are worth. Yes... you may have paid X amount of dollars when you purchased it, but today no-one wants that item, hence the price would be lower. Couches used to be another itme we hated. Yes.. it may be in like new shape, a major name brand, but.. it's also horribly ugly. We finally had to be blunt, because she knew if we had too much overpriced items, they would sit in the store... taking up room.. forever.

I used to have old people get insulted when I offered them $10 for their 20 year old non-working console TV. One old woman laughed in my face, followed by the statement that she paid $1100 for the TV and there was no way she was going to give it to me for $10. She also had to tell me how beautiful the cabinet was and that someone would pay good money for it just for the cabinet, followed by the statement, "It just won't turn on, there can't be much wrong with it". I reminded her that the TV was 20+ years old, no longer worked, and that she'd gotten her money's worth out of it, and that I was taking a gamble on it even being worth repairing, and that, regardless of how pretty the cabinet is, it's not worth much if it doesn't work. My reasoning usually did no good. All these people are thinking about is what they paid for it and when they are that hard headed, there's no changing their minds. All one can do is walk away because it's usually a waste of time trying to reason with them.

Then, there are loads of other people who are all too happy just to have someone get the TV out of their way and they'll almost pay you to haul it away, instead of expecting to be paid for the TV.

I think the issue with the Teknika TV is that she's yet another person who thinks it's worth big money just because it has some age on it and looks slightly odd looking.

I had a 27" Teknika Monitor/Receiver at one time, in a partical board case, it was all Samsung inside. It smoked one night when I turned it on after a long day it work, I calmly disconnected it, carried it out the front door and threw it as far into the front yard as I could. The next morning i walked it the rest of the way to the curb.
It was replaced by a Sony Profeel KX-2501.

Matt

Teknika was 100% Japanese, and had some high quality stuff - metal cabinets (like the Sanyo 91CXX series) and SAW filters, way before others were using them. We had a dealer that got the warranty work for Teknika - except for the odd power issue (thanks to lightning) and a couple of busted backs, he would've starved on the Teknika warranty work.

The US Navy bought mod'ed Teknikas - we had one on my shop aboard the Forrestal (86-89) that was a great set - I replaced a couple of vertical caps in 89, and noticed it had an isolation transformer and an externally replaceable SloBlo fuse added, very professionally. The rest of the set reminded me of Toshiba and Hitachi sets, with metal everywhere, and heavy 18 gauge wire going to the tuner cluster. Our set ran 24 hours a day, and except for a bit of vertical shrinkage due to the two bad caps, we never had a problem. We adjusted the volume so much, we wore the chrome plating off of the on/off volume knob.

I've seen several other Teknikas, but none with remote control, so they may have been a low-end set to start with. The CRTs are almost always a Hitachi tube.

Cheers,

I remember seeing one of their VCRs 20-something years ago that was unmistakeably Panasonic inside

You know, I have a 13" Teknika Commodore 64/128 monitor in the garage. Also works with CGA and EGA for it's RGB port, and it's Composite with regular TV stuff (though with not much overscan). It's dual RCA jacked S-Video needs an adapter which I made somewhere in one of my junk drawers.

It would be interesting to know who was behind them. There was some connection with Wells-Gardner. We have a 13" color from maybe '83 that we use in the bedroom now. It's been some time since I've looked but it seems as though it was assembled in the US but everything inside was Japanese. I want to say I found W-G's EIA number on the case or something. I'm gonna guess they assembled them just to save the import duties. I also have a set-top remote unit (so you could make any TV remote controlled). The same remote will work the TV and that box. Used to date a girl whose parents had a 19" Teknika from the late 70s; it looked Asian to me. I've seen consoles while leafing through Photofacts, and maybe they were 100% W-G.

Just to add to the confusion, my main TV used to be a Teknika 26-inch, mid-80s vintage. It was made in the US by NAP and I have seen the same set branded as Sylvania Superset or Magnavox. It had an LED channel display, it was cable ready with MTS/SAP, remote control, A/V input and output (but you could not select TV/video from the remote, that was done with slide switches on the console). Plastic fake woodgrain tabletop cabinet. I bought it at a garage sale and it had no sound, repaired a bad ground connection and that fixed everything.

So maybe Teknika was not associated with any particular manufacturer, and they just went with different OEM companies depending on what they needed to sell. My buddy had a Teknika VHS Hi-Fi VCR too, don't remember any specifics about that.

ThenI think the issue with the Teknika TV is that she's yet another person who thinks it's worth big money just because it has some age on it and looks slightly odd looking.

The other problem I've seen is that a "helpful" grandkid will tell an older relative "the same model sold for $ xxxxx on Ebay recently". I check out Craig's List often, and have noticed all too many times that people see some outrageous price on Ebay and assume the local market will pay the same price. Maybe in NYC or LA, but not here in small town America!

If the 85 year old lady selling that Teknika for $75 wants to see it sold in her lifetime, she needs to lower the price dramatically! :D

The other problem I've seen is that a "helpful" grandkid will tell an older relative "the same model sold for $ xxxxx on Ebay recently". I check out Craig's List often, and have noticed all too many times that people see some outrageous price on Ebay and assume the local market will pay the same price. Maybe in NYC or LA, but not here in small town America!

If the 85 year old lady selling that Teknika for $75 wants to see it sold in her lifetime, she needs to lower the price dramatically! :D

Every year, we have a long yard sale where people set up on the side of the road. A girl in her 20's had a tube-type Admiral console stereo that had obviously gotten damp on top and the phono cartridge was hanging by it's leads. I asked how much and she said $35. Although $35 would not have cut my food supply short, I thought it was still too much to pay for something that did not work and was in less than perfect cosmetic condition. I asked if she'd take less and I had to hear all about online prices and what they ask for the ones at the flea market. I asked her if they actually sold for that much or did they just sit there at those prices. Of course, she didn't know. I tried to explain that just because someone was asking a certain price for an item, that does not mean it will actually SELL for that price. Even if it does sell, that's still no indication that all such items will bring that much. I was unable to convince her and she still had her stereo when I left.

Now, when they tell me what something goes for on ebay; I tell them to go ahead and list it on ebay because they are not going to get that much here in MS.

Another thing I see are people trying to sell "sentimental value". More than once, I've tried to buy things for a reasonable price, only to be told that the item had too many memories attached to it to let it go that cheap. Well, then keep the freakin' thing if it means that much to you. I don't care that you have fond memories of Grandma listening to Lawrence Welk and Ray Conniff albums on it and I'm only going to pay a fair price for it. I don't want to buy your memories.

General Washington's horse stopped here and watched Mr. Ed on that set.

When I was married, my mother-in-law had a floor model Teknika set. It didn't make the best picture at the time... had been around for a while and likely had lots of hours on it.