Greetings from Virginia! Aspiring designer/publisher. Tips on finding reputable mfgs to get cost quotes?

Plays in less than an hour? And involves bidding? Sounds like my kind of game. I would be interested in playtesting it.

I built a prototype once with www.thegamecrafter.org and got it printed and sent to me. It's a pretty good way of getting a cost estimate and a prototype with the components you need. You build the game out of their standard components (tokens, pawns, etc) and printed components (boards, cards, etc) and put it in a box and you get a price. After looking at that price, you can modify the components and thus change the price. Pretty useful tool for a game designer.

As for finding a graphic designer, I would recommend using your own connections. If you don't have any, then join a club like Toastmasters, which tends to attract entrepreneurs such as them. Student art shows are also great places to find artists striving to prove themselves. I've seen a lot of talent at school expos such as that.

As for finding a manufacturer who does mass-production, I think you might be out of luck. Big companies like Hasbro have the means for mass production, but they don't take risks with independently-designed games (instead, they reprint Monopoly once per year with a different flavour). This is something I haven't figured out yet, either.

You said that you haven't playtested with strangers yet. Well, why not try introducing the prototype to some other friends, but not claiming that it's yours? In fact, try to avoid having any attachment to it other than that it's "a cool game that you got from the internet and wanted to try". This could allow your friends to be able to give the game the criticism it needs without them worrying about hurting your feelings. Yes, it's dishonest, but so is their biased criticism ;)

As for your particular game, bidding games are not unique. Try to find the game that's the closest match to yours, and play it until you figure out what makes it tick. The more games you play with a particular mechanic that you like, the more you'll be able to understand what makes it fun, and how other players have fun with it. Three games that involve bidding, off the top of my head, are Power Grid, Carcassonne (with the bazaars expansion), and (sort-of) Acquire. Of those, I would most recommend Power Grid, because it has the most natural auction process.

Let me know how your kickstarter goes. I am wondering about doing one, myself. I don't know much about how it works or how well it works.

Lastly, good luck to you, sir! It's a tough industry to get into, and I am still roughing it in the fringes with my prototypes. Don't give up.