OCEANSIDE -- If high-tech has a discount bin, its Web address is Geeks.com.

Instead of offering the newest and costliest gadgets to early adopters, the Web retailer thrives by offering bargain-hunters inexpensive, lagging-edge technology.

Computers and parts such as video and sound cards, hard drives and memory, make up most of the inventory at Geeks.com. The company also sells consumer electronics such as MP3 players and flat-panel TVs. Most customers buy online, although the company also sells on-site through a small retail store off Oceanside Boulevard.

Despite the recession, Geeks.com is expanding. Last fall, the company increased its warehouse space from 100,000 to 165,000 square feet by leasing a building across from its headquarters, at 1890 Ord Way.

Frugal, knowledgeable customers are the company's base, said Peter Green, the company's marketing manager.

"Our focus is on close-out, end-of-life, excess inventory, refurbished items," Green said. "We really don't carry the latest and greatest technology. We're a deal company."

Growth through independence

Geeks.com appears to get mostly positive reviews for price and service, according to Web searches by a North County Times reporter.

However, the company recently agreed to a data security settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said hackers had breached the site from January to June of 2007.

As part of the settlement, the company will submit to an independent security audit every other year for the next 10 years.

Geeks.com, otherwise known as Compgeeks, is a subsidiary of Genica Corp, a 13-year-old company also based in Oceanside. Another subsidiary, Evertek Computer Corp., sells to dealers and small businesses.

In 1999, Compgeeks reported sales of $49.5 million in a filing for an initial public offering. But it reconsidered and decided to remain privately held, anticipating that the dot-com boom would soon crash, Green said.

"The owners are very savvy business people and saw that industry downturn on the horizon," Green said. "They had been running their business very successfully and thought, we really don't need the influx of cash that an IPO would bring, we can grow it on our own and maintain our independence."

In 2008, Genica racked up sales of $168 million, Green said. About $68 million of those sales came through Geeks.com.

Living on the Web

Web traffic to Geeks.com shot up sharply last fall, according to Crunchbase.com, a database of technology companies.

For most of 2008, the site had around 500,000 unique visitors per month. But in November, that number rose past 600,000 and reached a rate of 800,000 visitors per month in December.

Green said that increase was caused by bargain-hunting over the Web.

"We feel we benefited from our reputation as being a deal company this Christmas season," he said.

That Web traffic is the result of years of painstaking work, constantly updated, Green said.

"We have the benefit of having maintained this Web site for over a decade," Green said. "We have been in Google's index since Google started. We have a decadelong history of backlinks to this Web site."

They speak geek

The company's light-hearted logo leaves no doubt about its typical customer. It depicts a bespectacled Jay Leno-jawed man sporting spiky orange hair, white dress shirt and (of course) a pocket protector.

These technically savvy customers demand a lot of information before they buy, Green said. So product listings include detailed specifications. These include photos and illustrations created by two full-time photographers and two full-time graphic artists.

The artists are kept busy, with dozens of new products every day.

"On any day, we'll receive 20 to 40 new products that get posted on the Web site within 48 hours, and at the same time we're selling out of a corresponding number," Green said. "So the inventory is constantly changing."

Some of these bargain items would be attractive only to the ubergeek, unafraid of delving into the mystery inside the metal box.

One recent bargain was a 2.4 gigahertz Pentium 4 desktop computer for $55 -- sans monitor, keyboard, mouse and hard drive. But since Geeks.com also sells these components individually, that's no impediment to the technically proficient.

Open and human

Mike Allen, who operates the "Shopping Bargains" blog, a Geeks.com seller affiliate, said he was impressed by the company's egalitarian culture and its efficiency during a visit to the company in October.

The company president sits at a desk in the center of an open room, surrounded by employees, Allen said.

"Everybody has access to each other," Allen said. "It didn't look like a hierarchy or a stifling environment. It was just very open. They were very much about business, but still had time to be human."

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com. Read his blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com.