I got a good method for you:

Don't shop on eBay/the internet; I've been scammed over $1,300 the police have caught the guy but all he got was a criminal record etc and I still lost my money ... yes I h8 the cops now bloody hypocritz!!

And don't shop around just at $1K. Actually see all the available laptops yourself (specs) in store and compile a list (on paper or in your head).

Start the list with those that have a minimum of 2GB and a modern CPU: 2GHz Core2Duo (P-series), 2GHz Core i3/i5/i7 series or an ATi that is on par. Anymore GHz is just bonus, it won't make certain games that didn't work suddenly work, it would just make them run smoother. Don't go for anything above 2-cores especially quadcores, you will just be losing money and wasting battery life. Tricore may* be worth it, if its slower than a 2GHz P-series but cheaper.

Do you have a REQUIRED battery life rating? (eg must have 5hrs min on power save). Now weed out the laptops that can't provide the mobility. Rule of thumb, if it says 8hours you will score 6hrs, so use that 80% rule to determine the real battery life (not according to manufacture's flawed benchmark). Also note, its unlikely, but some laptops will have upgradable battery with more (mAh) electric capacity. If you will be replacing home desktop/always at power source/dont have a batterylife requirement, don't acknowledge what I've just said.

Next weed out the laptops that have no GPU's or slow GPU's.

Just use THIS website to see the performance of the GPU on the laptops. The list is on the right in a heirachy order and clicking will show you their properties/TDP/benchmarks. Or simply use THIS list to find the game that is most GPU-heavy that you NEED to play and then weed out the laptops (from your list) which have GPU's below that line.
Note Perfect is >50fps on high settings.
Decent is usually >30fps on high/>50fps on high settings.
Playable is usually >40fps on medium settings (anything less and you will notice the pc's strain).


Now you should have a smaller list (call it list B) of laptops that can play the game you want to play. Now go back and start bargaining!!! Try getting more DDR3 RAM (if it was 2GB) to at least 4GB (anymore it wont be necessary) to remove performance bottleneck. And try getting a lower price. LIE, say you saw a competitor with a better laptop at better price etc.

Now you have just a few options (depending on your budget), choose the one that is better functions/build quality/warranty/price/OS, you set the balance!

Using that method, I got my laptop (which was powerful but not a gaming laptop) roughly AU$1300 from AU$1999 price-point. How? I hustled and bought 2 with free backpack, printer, hardrive, cash rebate from Harvey Norman for $3000 and sold the other one for $1,600. And it plays decently Crysis, from ~2yrs ago. It was HP Pavillion dv6, had everything (stylish,720screen,TV tuner) except Bluetooth and build quality was poor-ish. But I got the warranty and it was a smart move. Now my lil bro uses (no, demolishes) it and I've gone light&skinny with ACER 4810TG (prezzie).

@chase15, good luck, I hope you make the right decision and are happy with your purchase!

edit: now that you have the really small list (list B), go ahead and check the internet for sales from genuine sellers (not eBay) ... unlikely but you may find a special!!