crbatt: I'm going to swim against the stream here (risking a thread hijack) and say don't jump too quickly into CA mics. Other alternatives are out there short of the $500'ish range DPA 406x route.
Personally, I might look at some of the AT adapted mics available at Sound Professionals like the SP-CMC-8 A bit more money than CA-11's perhaps but they're smaller and have switchable caps if you like to expand. SP has a taper discount too, something that the new folks who are pointing to CA don't know or have forgotten. SP has been a solid company IMO with few complaints.
As far as his mic preamps go, I think there are few better alternatives for the money and form factor for plug-in mics. The Naiant littlebox can be customized for nearly any mic you have and is maybe not too big for your consideration. I'd say the littlebox price might be in your ball park and performance has been turning a lot of heads here.
Littlebox (or Tinybox if small size is important) may be a better deal than the ST-9100 for the money but both are great preamps. Tinybox or Littlebox would be better if you are going to do a lot of acoustic recordings and may need more than 20 dB of gain.
I disagree with the SP recommendation over the CA-14's if price is important to you. Again, both SP's and Church deliver quality gear but Church Audio gives you far more bang for the buck and sound every bit as good as the SP stuff if not better. SP's switchable caps are great, but if all you need are cards & omnis, just get both the CA-14 cards and omni's and you're all set.
I second Tedley's recommendation to pick up the CA 14 card/omni & ST-9100 package in the yard sale. You can't do better for twice the cash.