What is the best way to produce the boardgame we made with minimal cost?

We (four friends) made a board game, which we really think will be a success. Many friends we showed liked it, and we want to produce and sell it. Selling part would initially be from Amazon, and depending on the success it might than become available in stores. However our biggest issue is the production costs. Physically, the game is similar to cards gainst humanity; but the game is completely different from cards against humanity. Surprisingly it has not been done before, so we will have no intellectual property related problem (IP law expert here). The game will only have 500 cards (physically similar to cards against humanity; reason I am using that game as a reference is that most people would not know the techical specifications. If you know, I mean 300 GSM paper, 500 cards each game, black and white, two piece box, shrink wrapped.) We asked for 1,000 boxes initially to see how the game will sell. Some Alibaba merchants gave good prices, but upon further examination they turned out to be thieves, so we do not want anything to do with alibaba. Only place we could find in USA quoted us $45 per game, which is beyond ridiculous. If we paid $45 per game, we would need to sell around $80 in order to even the cost with Zero profit (shipping, handling, selling, insurance etc...), which would guarantee that we cannot sell any. I will truly appreciate if you can suggest some producers which do not try to rob us by Quoting $45 per game. Chineese merchants quote around $7 per game, but we have zero knowledge about cross-border trades, and cannot deal with it.