Long story short, I have an offer for a technical contract. The company has been courting me for years and I finally decided to call them up and see if they had anything for me. They did, but because of some internal changes, I now have to go through one of their "preferred vendors" as they don't take on contractors directly.
This was my lead and the position was created for me. There was no recruiting effort on behalf of the staffing company and there was not an existing position that they could attempt to fill with anyone else.
The staffing company hasn't come back yet with firm numbers, but I suspect they'll be attempting to take between $2,000 and $2,500 per month ($24,000-$30,000 per year) with a single monthly invoice and net 45 payment terms, so I would not see my first paycheck until 2 1/2 months after I start and the staffing company would not have to float any money to me. This seems a bit excessive to me. I have a list of staffing companies that I can go through and am trying to get others to move, but the first one has been very aggressive in trying to secure it with the end customer. I would think that $1,000/mo should be plenty for this sort of thing.
There is some value in that the firm went through the client's vetting process to become a vendor and there is some effort involved in setting up the contract, but for me to restrict myself through a staffing contract and to be taxed that much of what I'm getting paid (corp-to-corp) seems like the standard FSA "because you can afford it" argument.