A table ice hockey game is the first thing you see when entering the office of Firebox.com, a company that is flourishing by selling completely frivolous items at a time when many net retailers are floundering.

The brainchild of two Birmingham university friends, Michael Smith and Tom Boardman, Firebox.com sells toys and gadgets for men aged 18 to 34. Opened for business two years ago, Firebox took off when customers began snapping up a shot glass chess set in droves from its website. Popshots, a variant on the old pistols that shoot a rubber sucker, was another item that found favour with the punters.

Firebox's success has not gone unnoticed. Last week, Dennis Publishing, publishers of Maxim, the glossy men's lifestyle magazine, took a 5% equity stake in Firebox, whose site carries the logo "where men buy stuff". In addition, Firebox announced plans to raise £1m through a private placement of shares with EO, the online equity company for retail investors.

Smith, who started Firebox with a £1,000 loan from his mother, attributes his company's success to several factors. By their nature, Firebox's products appeal to grown-up male journalists who apparently like write about new toys.

So the company spends virtually nothing on marketing while other dot.coms burn up money on massive advertising campaigns to establish themselves as brand names. Boo.com came to grief partly because it wasted so much money this way.

Advertising may generate traffic, but traffic in itself does not necessarily add up to sales, Smith argues. "Above-the-line advertising may attract traffic, but the critical thing is what happens after that. You have to convert visitors to buyers and buyers to advocates," he says, adding that for many e-tailers, conversion of visitors to buyers has been very low.

Another reason for Firebox's success is the high margins of its products, unlike books and CDs. Some products, bought from an array of over 70 suppliers, have average gross profit margins of over 40%.

"We're selling products people haven't seen before and our customers are in their 20s, people with relatively high disposable income," Smith said. "It means we can grow very fast without a big marketing budget."

While Firebox has carved out a nice niche for itself, the faddish nature of the market means the company has to be constantly on the lookout for new products to keep sales going and to keep its site fresh. Smith and his three partners (who share a house - so they live, eat and breathe toys) cull magazines and visit trade fairs for ideas. But as the company's reputation spreads, companies are now sending them products.

Corx, a new, decidedly low-tech game, is Firebox's next big hope. Consisting of two corks coloured red at one end and black at the other, contestants win points depending on what colour comes up when they bounce the corks on a flat surface.

"We're going back to low-tech," says Smith, who believes there will be a resurgence of such products that appeal to kids as well as adults. "Corx is very stylish and has a funky appeal. There hasn't been anything like it before."

While the appeal of bouncing a couple of corks may seem dubious, selling toys for adults on the net has proven to be a winning proposition so far, with Firebox heading towards sales of £2m this year. But like many dot.com companies, there are no hard and fast predictions on when it will actually turn a profit.

Useful links
Firebox.com