I don't find that mutually exclusive. Having a high priced contest on 99Designs is the best way I know of to get in touch with great designers. You can work with them further offline as well.
A great designer would not be seen near such a place. Heck, any self respecting designer would do their best to avoid it. You're buying the time of kiddies equipped with photoshop, nothing more.
Agreed - in order to get a nice logo from 99Designs, I had to wade through ten tons of utter crap, but after doing that I both ended up with a nice logo and a relationship with a solid graphic designer that I've been working with directly to make additional assets.