I've seen quite a few websites that allow you to submit to hundreds or thousands of high PR directories for something like £0.05/$0.02 per submission - apparently all hand submitted. One example is blurbpoint.co.uk, but I've seen many· What should I make of these? Are they worth it? Any I should look at closely, or definitely stay away from?
I'd recommend not using blurbpoint, i had a bad experience with them I can promise you that they're not all hand submitted and I can promise you that they won't increase your rank. The quality of links is much more important than the quantity (and BTW these high-PR directories only have a high PR on their homepages), and how do you think getting a few thousand submissions in these "SEO directories" looks for Google? They won't help your site in the long term.
Folks bear in mind that manual submission is unbeatable.... It's just a kind of tiresome, however as long you do it naturally the chances of your site stay in a long run is possible..