The Short Version
No credible evidence supports the idea that 1,000 purchased copies can land a book on the New York Times Best Seller List. Every available source places the minimum threshold at roughly 3,000–5,000 copies sold per week, depending on category and competition. The NYT also uses a proprietary methodology that actively flags or discounts strategic bulk purchases, meaning that buying 1,000 copies in a single transaction would likely not even be fully counted toward list qualification.