What would you do?

FYI, The UPS charge for COD is now $6.00
I don't think the seller is doing anything wrong. They are just protecting themselves from a potential deadbeat buyer.
If the auction sais buyer pays all shipping charges, then you should pay for what you request. If seller pays, you are stuck with whatever shipper he chooses.

I agree with Sugarbrie. I have seen sellers send COD and request the COD payment plus the shipping in advance. A deadbeat buyer could simply refuse the COD and the seller would be out the shipping and the COD payment. I think this seller is doing nothing wrong. There are deadbeat sellers and deadbeat buyers, but you have to at some point develop a certain amount of trust either through phone calls or emails to complete the transaction. The only other option is an escrow service and they have fees also. Paypal charges about a 3% fee to the seller. That can add up to quite a few dollars on an expensive component.

I've got a few Questions:
What was the price of the preamp?
What is the overall feedback of the ebay member?

You should examine feedback for the seller first before bidding. If you do not trust than don't bid.

Nak isn't so rare on ebay and can be available from different sellers so pick your best.

Ebay transactions are secure and I highly doubdt that seller would risk his/her ars to get kicked out for a couple hundred bucks.

If I personally buy on ebay items over $500 I make sure that they're near me for a local pick up.

And finally I completely agree with Jwrobinson stating that there is no seller that will send you the unit first unless you're agreed to use an Escrow.

EBay has a money back guarantee for fraudulent or mis-advertised products. They cover "almost" anything up to $200 but charge a $25 fee.

This might work instead of going the COD way. I doubt its easy to get your money from eBay, but it is there. Check out the eBay site under Services.

That is very interesting, Rrick, and I had no idea. I thought it was strictly caveat emptor. Ebay must feel that they actually do have some kind of responsibility or liability here, either in the legal sense, or in the court of public opinion. I'm sure you're right in opining that they probably don't pay out too often, but if they ever pay anything at all, they must figure that expenditure to be ultimately less costly than the alternative of never paying anything to anybody. I'd like to know exactly why that might be, so as to understand the implications. (Or do they try and collect from the fraudulent advertiser any money ebay pays out?)