Jan 14, 2007 08:26 pm For $200 you could probably do better than Behringer for preamps.
Take a look at the PreSonus blue tube for one of the better budget "toob" preamps. Or maybe the M-Audio DMP3 if you want a cleaner solid-state preamp.
A small mixer may not be a bad idea as an alternative, mainly because you can get a few preamps of acceptible quality along with some cool routing options for monitoring or using multiple mics once your collection grows.
The preamps on most of the budget mixers will be of comparable quality to the stand-alone budget preamps. In a higher price bracket that might not hold true, but if you're looking to spend less than $200 a Yamaha, Mackie, SoundCraft, or even Peavey mixer will have preamps that compare to or maybe outperform most budget stand-alone preamps.