I've become devoted to Logitech corded optical wheelmice. The only trouble the wheel mechanism ever develops is scrolling starts to become imprecise, like there's a random bounce-back. That's just dust building up in the wheel -- pull that out so the LED can shine clearly through those little spokes again.
Other long-term issue is the plastic nubs of the body buttons that press the microswitches eventually wear down. This is easily built up with a tiny square or two of cellophane tape.
Final item is wire breakage, usually within the six inches nearest the mouse. Symptom is sudden random cursor movements. This is a /lot/ more noticeable in Linux which is less forgiving than XP. When the random behavior occurs, run "dmesg | grep -i usb" in terminal and you'll see a slew of disconnect/reconnect. Solution is fix the wire of course. Either swap in a spare cable, or lop off that 6" and do some delicate work refitting the tiny connector.
Only other comment is I'm primarily a Linux user, so the wheel gets pressed a lot as third button.
The two mIce I have handy are M-BJ58/M-BJ69 and BP86.
Should say Logitech's wireless mice may be okay too, I've just never bothered to find out. These mice are that good. It's like finally getting a good keyboard -- you'll never change.