» Sat Dec 11, 2010 8:48 pm
Correct, but make sure he owns the items, either directly, or because they inherit ownership from the cell they're in. Almost all vendors will have a shop that they own, but there are exceptions. Obviously Shady Sam is one, as he isn't in an interior cell at all. He can still sell thing near him if he owns them, so they have explicit ownership set in the CS.
An FWIW, the items they buy go directly into their own inventory. I seem to remember issues where some would equip items, and you couldn't buy them back, but I don't recall the circumstances. The chests are, as you suggest, to support respawning, as well as to allow different chests to be enabled/disabled to change the vendor's range of goods.