"Short wait" doesn't mean you won't get it, it just means you might or might not get it. For example, 1,000 people are waiting, 500 copies are being shipped back by other people -- that means you still have a 50% chance of getting the movie.
"long wait" still doesn't mean you won't get the movie, just that the odds are worse, say 10%.
And netflix does seem to queue up people at least partly by when they put the movie into their queue, so eventually they put you at the top of the waiting list for whatever copies of a "long wait" movie they have.
someday, but if it's hard to get what you want, I may not do it at all.
It's not hard to get what you want, unless you must see specific new releases on the exact day they are released. If you're OK with maybe having to wait a week sometimes (teh horror!), you'll be fine. If you keep other movies in your queue that you actually want to see, what's the problem?
Between TV shows (US, British, anime), foreign films, and Hollywood fare I have around a hundred items in my queue right now. Last week I got Shaun of the Dead but not Resident Evil 2, but so what? Resident Evil shipped Monday and I got it yesterday.
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