I started quilting using fat quarters and after a very long time of not using what I had, I did a stash buster queen sized nine-patch quilt over the fall with them. Funny thing is, I promised myself I wouldn't buy anymore fat quarters but then I saw a Waverly Inspirations batiks bundle that I fell in love with and well, you guessed it, I'm making a hexie quilt with them.
I would say yes to getting them, just make sure you inspect them first, old fabrics do start to break down even if they haven't been used. Also beware if you run into a fat quarter that you absolutely fall in love with, you run the risk of not finding that fabric again because it's been discontinued, I actually ran into that not too long ago.
Fat quarters are great though, if you learn how to cut them down for quilts, i.e, you can get 56 (I think) 2.5-inch squares off of one fat quarter, even if you were to use four 2.5-inch squares for a quilt block, that's still 14 quilt blocks and if you get proficient with them, you'll know exactly how many fat quarters to use for a queen size (roughly 45) or king sized quilt (roughly 55). They're serious space savers because you're not buying a lot of yardage that takes up more room and they seriously lend that scrappy quality to anything you work them into.
A thousand is a whole lot of fat quarters, but absolutely endless possibilities for creativity. Taking the 55 count for king-size - that's roughly 18 quilts, if you were to work specifically from the fat quarters....for $300. If you were to sell just one of your quilts from that stash, it'll pay for itself.