My recommendation would be to create a stored procedure to do the saving. So, in SQL (assuming you are using MS SQL)
CREATE PROCEDURE pr_SaveObject
(
@id int
)
AS
BEGIN
IF ((SELECT COUNT(*) FROM MyTable WHERE ID = @id) < 5)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO MyTable VALUES (@id, )
SELECT 1
END
ELSE
SELECT 0
END
Now just call the proc from your site and see if it passed or failed!