Hi new here i was looking at bb on ebay and noticed the listings with bad esn are considerably cheaper. The one i was looking at is new and boxed so i´m guessing its not stolen. My question is will it work in Mexico or Europe or do international providers wash ESN info with each other. Thanks in advance. OH and will a CDMA phone work on a GSM netowrk abroad just by putting in the SMS

For a CDMA phone to work in a GSM area, it has to be a "world phone" model. Those are CDMA devices with a SIM card, designed to roam onto European GSM networks when out of the U.S. or Canada (the two primary CDMA markets).

For the GSM portion to work on another carrier's SIM the GSM portion must be unlocked.

As for the "bad ESN" thing, that means the original carrier has blacklisted the device and it will not work. The only place to use it is on a carrier like MetroPCS or Cricket, and then only after flashing it to their own firmware. The Tier 1 carriers like Verizon, Sprint, etc, refuse to activate a handset on their network that was not originally sold by them. Even if Both Sprint and Verizon sell the identical device, if that particular one doesn't have Sprint's branding on it Sprint won't activate it. Both Sprint and Verizon sell the BB 9630, but you'll never see a Verizon one working on Sprint.

Raptor, isn't it also true that, depending upon why the ESN is bad, the BB may not be able to be activated with RIM making the BB services unavailable? (I'm thinking of demo models for example.)

And to the OP, new and boxed does not necessarily equate to "not stolen".

If they have a"bad ESN" there is no way I would get close to it, much less buy from an unknown eBay seller.

Rambo and TXLADY pretty much covered the issues you might encounter.

I´m pretty sure its not stolen as the seller has a 3 year histort and has sold many boxed models without esn for some reason. I can understand you caouldn´t use it with US carriers but could i use it with telcel in mexico for example or would the esn block it

If Telcel will activate it, and that's a big "IF", then the ESN block will not prevent it.

Often carriers will flag an ESN for a phone on an account in which the user was delinquent. Unpaid bill, unpaid ETF, etc. If a cell phone was lost, the finder may have sold it without trying to get it back to the owner. The owner reports is lost/stolen and the carrier blacklists it. Another popular scam you find on Craigslist these days is for an owner to sell his phone, then after getting cash in hand he reports it lost to get an insurance replacement.

Try asking the seller what they think. If they sell a lot of those, they should know the situations were it hasn't worked.

I would ask the seller why the ESN is "bad".