A bill of estimates over at gamereports.com says that the 360 controller costs $11 to manufacture.
I think its a bit absurd that the 360 wireless controllers are so expensive in stores, but I thought about it for a bit and it kind of makes sense- I mean, Microsoft is losing significantly more than $100 per console, so they gotta make their money somewhere, right?
I dunno, economics was never my strong suit, but I always love when estimates come out like this. I don't really care how much it costs to make, of course I would like to pay less for it, but in my opinion, it is the best controller ever made for a console, so it's worth it.
Still can't hold a candle to mouse and keyboard though.