I have bought and sold several gliders and many cars/trucks. Both myself, and the buyer, merrily drove away to other states without any license plates. Never had any issues.

Of course, we did have a bill of sale in our hands in case we were stopped. In the glider's case this was both the FAA version and a non-FAA version. The non-FAA version was separately one for just the glider, one for the trailer and one for the instruments. Unsure about that last one being needed but this is how I was taught way-back-when. Taxes I suppose.

My first trailer was home-built and purchased in Michigan. When I took it to Illinois (to a rural DMV, not Chicago!) they were ok with the home-built-ness but asked for the serial number, which it didn't have. So they issued a stick on "plate" that I applied to the tongue. Then they issued an IL title and plates. Really pretty easy. Maybe coming from Michigan was easier for some reason.

- John OHM Ω