I've had some good luck with third-party recruiters. There are some truly excellent recruiters, often running their own boutique firms, but the quality definitely varies and frankly a good number of firms do feel like a used car shop. For me, the purpose of 3rd-party recruiters is to inform me of new opportunities within my salary range and to get me an interview (if you're into contract work, they can often help with that). When I use 3rd-party recruiters, I have a few guidelines in place that I use to ensure I have a successful experience. 1) If a recruiter asks that you take time off work and come in to their office then they better deliver multiple interviews or else the firm gets blacklisted (Goodbye Talener and Robert Half NYC), 2) If a firm is sending you completely unrelated jobs outside your region they get blacklisted (bye CyberCoders), 3) If a recruiting company ghosts you they get blacklisted (Goodbye appcoresolutions). Firms that are blacklisted, I won't work with EVER. 4) Recruiters are there to get you the interview with companies that fit your requirements. I'm ok with the used car salesmen schtick as long as you get me interviews with companies.

Some things that I take to be a good sign that I should work with a recruiter: they want to discuss what you want AND then actually use those notes. One of my first jobs came about because a recruiter called me, talked about what I wanted and then called me back 3 months later when he had an open req that fit my profile. Those I value.