A little bit? It's at the scam level of overpriced! You could get a resonable computer for that price! Instead you get an antique E-reader (Mr.Scram, overpriced BW E-readers are scams too). That's basically like paying for a modern smart phone but getting a monochrome PDA!
Socceref, tell your bosses to slash it down to around $100USD, which is still expensive for it, but it's more reasonable then $400.
You're not being very realistic. Calling it "overpriced" could be a matter of debate, but calling it a scam is a bit silly. Supposing they could be sold for $100 is just being ridiculous, if I'm honest.
It's obviously not just a tablet or PDA with a monochrome screen. It's a screen technology with some very distinct qualities that surpass any other screen technology. If you happen to need or prefer these qualities, they're not unreasonable devices. Having a screen being perfectly readable in broad daylight, being a lot closer to paper than any other screen meaning less eye strain and it being very energy efficient under the right circumstances, which means you can read for months on a single charge are feats no other technology can match.
E-ink is relatively expensive, but that's a matter of simple economics. It's not a huge market, like is the case with LCD and OLED screens, so the cost per unit goes up. Have a look at what LCD televisions and flat computer screens cost when then they first hit the market. You paid stupid silly amounts money for technologically atrocious screens. Only when the numbers game turned in the customer's favour, flat displays became good and cheap. If they can barely bring a large numbers small size Kindle to market for $100, there's no way they can bring a much larger unit with added pen technology which is sold in much smaller numbers to market for anything close to that.