Those CTC-38s seemed to be the most common curbside find when I was a kid in the 80s. They were always cooked... PCB boards burnt, other major problems.
Second most common curb find was probably a Zenith 20xxxx set from the same era. Those either worked, or just needed cleaning or a few new tubes.
After a while, I just started doing horrible kid-like things to the RCAs after I stripped the tubes, and fixing/selling the Zeniths. As I recall, one RCA even ended up at my elementary school with a cinderblock inside of it.
