I have done all my printing in Germany for a few years now and can also highly recommend it. The companies we have dealt with have been excellent in proofing the data. They have gotten back to me because an image was fractions of a millimetre off compared to other images in my brochure and similar minuscule details that make the difference between a good and a great product.

The best way is to use Google Translate and find the German name of the product you want to manufacture and search like that since a lot of sites are in German only.

We are based in the UK so we're getting the benefits of being in the EU but even for the US market it might be worth looking into.

Any specific companies to recommend? If I search for something like "spielkarten hersteller", I find that linx.de has a nice list, but they're not all necessarily wonderful.

I don't have a job in mind at the moment, but I'm always curious to explore the possibilities.

Through a separate list I found a couple of companies: http://www.spielkarten.com/ http://philos.quasarshop.de/Home.asp?Lang=D http://www.dalnegro.com/ (Italian company)

I have never dealt with playing cards specifically so I cannot give concrete advice on this market but as with most products that I have had to source, I have found that most people are very helpful if you either write to them or pick up the phone and call and ask for advice. Since the playing cards market is not that big I am sure that companies are more than willing to give advice to entrants to this specific field.