Since the sprint iphone 5 has a sim card does it still have an esn?

Someone wants to sell me a used iphone 5
i wanted to know if i can activate it unblocked with another company
or if i can activate it wiwth sprint

Yes, it will have ESN or MEID even though it takes SIM. You can use the phone on Sprint but you've to make sure the phone has clean ESN. You can also get it unlocked and use with other GSM carriers.

CDMA carriers are ones such as verizon and sprint (they do not use sim cards, EVER!)

GSM carriers are ones such as tmobile and AT&T (they only use sim cards, ALWAYS!)

If you are buying a gsm carrier like tmobile or at&t you can just take out the sim card and activate it under your name no problem. Its legal and its ok with the phone company and they will give you a new sim card for YOUR account.

cdma like verizon and sprint will have an meid number within the motherboard. This number can't be changed or cleared of a bad contract until the bill is paid for.their is companies out there that can jailbreak and tether your phone to another phone company although they do not approve of it and you usually need to know someone that works there in order to get them to activate a hacked phone. It is illegal but they don't normally come after you for it.

My whole company revolves around buying, repairing and selling apple products! Answering these questions is free info for you and a way to get my name out there.