[Slot shop] - Prevent selling of the last item

How slot shops work is described here -> http://empireminecraft.com/wiki/slot-shop-signs/

I'm suggesting modifying this a bit, so that the shop owner can prevent the last item - the "reference item" from being sold.

This way, the shop owner can ensure that at least one item - the "reference item" - is in the chest and that people can sell to the chest-shop.

Three ideas about how this can be achieved:

A) Use specific slot number for this purpose, e.g. slot 2:
If the [Slot 2] is used, then the last item in the slot 1 won't be sold in order to allow selling to the chest.

Example:

Code:

 [Name]              [Name]
  1                  1
  101                :99
[Slot 2]            [Slot 1]

This way, the item in the slot 1 can not be bought and the chest won't get completely empty.

It would save shop keepers a lot of work (no complicated hopper-solutions needed) and many "why is the shop item not recognized?" questions.

B) A bit more complicated, but perhaps better idea:
If a chest-shop has a sign for buying with [Slot X], then any sign for selling with [Slot Y] with Y ≠ X, will not sell from Slot X.

C) Yet another even simpler and i think better idea:

Code:

 [Name]
  1
101:99
[Slot= 1]

Note the "=" sign after "Slot".
Or any simple "decoration" that would mean "use slot 1 as reference but do not sell the (last) item from it".

We need something like this for allowing a mall to buy/sell special items. Once a customer buys the last one, it wont know what is for sale and the shop simply displays a non-friendly error message.

Of the suggestions you made, C is the best.

One thing that should be fixed at the same time is a specific message if the slot you are trying to sell from is empty. Then it would say 'there is no item in the slot'.

i love this idea

I'm a little late to the party but I also like this idea (specifically option C).

Is there a technical reason why this hasn't been implemented yet?

+1 for the restocking-from-empty point.

Slot signs are great for solving a handful of problems with specialty items but there are a few challenges left to be solved.

congratulations! youve just earned 5,000,000 dodos from mrfisherman199(JK).
anyways, good idea. not that im holding a big shop or mall it would be nice to add, A+

+ a billion.. in my promo shop my items that I need to keep so players can sell to me keep getting sold xD so irritating lol

Yasssssss