Some things irritate me, like how much the rent is where I live compared with somewhere up north or down west where some of my extended family live. It's all very well saying the wages are higher but so is the cost of living. I also think the train fares/tube fares for commuters are pretty appalling given the absolutely lousy service received on a daily basis. It was actually better during the olympics! However, train fares to see extended family are pretty cheap if you book far enough in advance so can't really complain about that. I don't know, swings and roundabouts as people say.
We have ebay though and I've probably saved shed loads of money using that so I wouldn't say things are a always a rip off, I think you can allow yourself to be ripped off by thinking you have to have named brands or buying something off the rack rather than waiting for the sales or indeed looking on ebay.