Can an iphone with bad esn be activated by a carrier other than verizon?

I'm wanting to bid on an iphone on ebay but it says it has bad esn. I did some research and it says that verizon will not activate the phone again if it has bad esn. Does this mean no other carrier can activate the phone?
Also will the phone still turn on and work with Wi-Fi and etc without activation?

If you could, why are there so many cheap "bad esn" phones for sale on eBay. I think you could have before 2012, now the major carriers share the bad esn lists, or claim they do.