We need to remember that those prices are for untested / unpackaged chips and how to handle unpackaged chips would be another topic of discussion, hope someone puts in more info regarding this.
You will get the dies from Europractice in a little tray like this:
You can just forward that to the packaging house, without even opening it. But if you do, because you'll obviously want a look
, don't worry, too much, they'll probably survive even if you fiddle with them with tweezers (you can get proper tools). Just don't forget the ESD structures on your IO pads!
Europractice can do packaging - I personally use:
http://www.icproto.com/ in the USA. You need to send them a bonding diagram showing how the bond pads should be bonded to the package pins:
And give them some other details like diameter of the bond wires, what metal to use and of course what package you want, and a logo / marking. It will take them about a week (with postage) to do it. A couple of dies may be damaged in the setup process.
You may want to split it in to two lots for packaging, in case you make a mistake in your bonding diagram or they get lost in the post!
You'll need to design the test procedure yourself!