SBTSigns – chest-linked Sell, Buy, Trade & Exchange signs with Vault economy, protection, and smart UX.

✨ What is it?
SBTSigns lets you turn any chest (or double chest) into a simple shop, trade booth, or multi-item marketplace with nothing but signs. Place or link a sign, set the price/ratio, tap it with a Glow Ink Sac to activate, and you’re done. Players interact with signs to buy/sell/trade; the plugin handles money, stock, and protection automatically.

Features

• 
  [] Instant linking
  Signs placed on a chest face auto-link. Wall/hanging signs link via /sbt select (right-click sign → right-click chest).
  
  [] Vault economy
  Money flows correctly between buyers/sellers/owners. Prices accept “$6000” or “6000” (the “$” is auto-added).
  
  [] Protection built-in
  Linked signs & chests are owned. Only the owner can break them, and non-owners can’t open protected chests.
  
  [] Activation lock
  Glow Ink Sac locks editing (and keeps the glow). Use [/sbt edit] to change price/ratio later.
  
  [] Double-chest aware
  Everything works with single or double chests.
  
  [] Smart displays
  Signs auto-scan the linked chest and update lines for item type, counts, “Full”, “Out of Stock”, or “Restock”.
  
  [] Clean UX
  Shift-click shortcuts for 1/hand/all (Sell/Trade) and 1/10/stack (Buy). Exchange has a simple GUI picker & quantity chooser.
  
  [] No virtual dupes
  Exchange keeps physical vanilla stacks (the plugin merges like items safely; no fake “virtual” storage to lose).
  

Sign Types & Format

Sell – players sell items to the owner.

• Chest may hold one item type only for a Sell sign.

• Right-click: sell 1. Shift-Right-click: sell your entire hand. Shift-Left-click: sell all of that item in inventory.

• If the chest has 0 stock or is full, selling is blocked and the sign shows “Restock”/“Full”.

• The owner must have enough balance; if not, the sale is denied.







Buy – players buy items from the owner.

• Chest may hold one item type only for a Buy sign.

• Right-click: buy 1. Shift-Right-click: buy 10. Shift-Left-click: buy a full stack.

• Prevents purchases if the chest is empty or the player’s inventory has no space (no off-hand/armor stuffing).





Trade – item-for-item trades with ratios and chest partitions.

• The chest is split into two halves: first half = payout (Line 2), second half = cost (Line 3).

• Only one item type is allowed in each partition.

• Keeps 1 sample item in the payout partition; shows “Restock” until there’s enough to satisfy the ratio.

• “Full” appears when the cost partition is full.

• Hold the cost item in hand to trade. Shift-Right: as many sets as possible; Right-click: 1 set.

• Prevents trades if player inventory can’t receive the payout.








Exchange – multi-item marketplace with GUI.

• Put items in the chest, close it, and you’ll be prompted in chat to price any new, unpriced items.

• Players right-click the sign to open a GUI: select an item, then pick a quantity with +/− buttons, and buy.

• Safe merges: identical items are merged up to vanilla stack caps; no virtual storage.

• Breaking the sign or chest returns all items to the breaker (overflow drops neatly).









Commands

• 
  
  /sbt select – enter link mode (right-click a sign, then right-click a chest).
  
  /sbt cancel – leave link mode.
  
  /sbt edit price – while looking at a [Sell]/[Buy] sign you own, get a chat prompt to change the price.
  
  /sbt edit ratio – while looking at your [Trade] sign, change the A:B ratio via chat.
  
  
• /sbt edit exchange – while looking at your [Exchange] sign, open a GUI to select which item to re-price, then type the new price in chat.
  

️ Ownership & Protection

• 
  [] When a sign is linked, both the sign and chest store the owner’s UUID.
  
  [] Only the owner can break the linked sign/chest (breaking either safely handles the pair).
  
  [] Non-owners cannot open protected chests.
  
  [] Editing a sign directly is blocked once activated with Glow Ink Sac; use /sbt edit.
  

Quality-of-Life Details

• 
  [] Signs auto-scan linked chests on create and on every change (click/drag/hopper/close) and refresh lines.
  
  [] Price formatting accepts “6000” or “$6,000” and displays as “$6,000”.
  
  [] Colors: Sell, Buy, Trade, Exchange (only the word on line 1 is colored).
  
  [] Glow Ink Sac adds glow and activates (locks) the sign.
  
• Spawn protection / region protection still applies (if a player can’t place signs due to server settings, that’s respected).

Requirements

• 
  [] Vault (economy bridge)
  [] A Vault-compatible economy plugin (EssentialsX Economy, CMI, etc.)
  
• Spigot/Paper 1.20.x – 1.21.x (tested)

Files

• 
  [] owner.yml – persists ownership links.
  
  [] No complex config needed; everything is sign-driven and command-driven.

❓ FAQ

• 
  [] “It says ‘This sign is not linked to a chest.’”
  Place the sign on the chest face (auto-link) or run /sbt select, right-click the sign, then right-click the chest.
  
  [] “The text won’t change after I edit the sign.”
  Activate with a Glow Ink Sac to lock the type, then use /sbt edit to change price/ratio later. The lines also refresh whenever the chest contents change.
  
  [] “Players can’t place a sign in my spawn.”
  Check server spawn-protection or region flags; SBTSigns respects those.
  
  [] “Why won’t my Sell/Buy sign accept multiple item types?”
  Sell/Buy signs are single-item chests by design. Use [Exchange] for multi-item selling.

Support
Bug or idea? Post in the discussion with your server version, economy plugin, and any console logs. I’m happy to tune behaviors for your community.