Different people value different things, but the CCNA and RCHE exams are valued because you have to do "real-world" style work. Meaning that if you can pass the exam, you can probably do exactly the same thing as a work assignment and do it in a reasonable amount of time.
The CISSP and A+ exams are frequently demanded, although I never really analyzed the A+ for actual utility and only know CISSP by repute.
The ones that are pretty worthless and the cram-and-barf ones.
SCJP can be done C&B, and I haven't been seeing much demand for it lately. At the bottom of my list are the specialty certs from vendors and the mass-market ones from
testing centers. I think a lot of the vendor product certs are actually awarded just so the vendor can advertise how much alleged support the product has, and the testing centers would certify a sandwich-maker if they could get paid for it.
Honestly, I don't think the best indication of competence for software development and design can be done in a short Q&A session. Real-life competence indicators require weeks or months of work to prove, and in my own opinion, would be better handled by some sort of apprenticeship program like the old-style guilds had. Continuing that analogy, I wouldn't myself certify for individual tools because one of the marks of a good craftsman is the ability to pick up and work with any good tool of the trade. From a cold-blooded business perspective, if you used edlin and could develop quality maintainable software and documentation in a reasonable timeframe, it's all one to me.