I think you have a bad set on contacts on your starter, you can pick them up for less than 30.00 at you friendly toyota dealer (same as land cruiser) taking the starter out is about a 3-4 hr job complete and i would suggest any competent mechanic can do, it if not yourself. There are plenty of instructions with pictures on the internet. 1k is absolutely ridiculous.
You can get a brand new OEM starter from toyota-parts.com for around $200. Since the starter is under the intake manifold, you want to make sure it works before you button up the engine since it's a fair amount of work to remove all the hoses, manifold, and the hard-to-access starter mounting bolts. If it were me, I'd buy a new starter plus replacement starter contacts & plunger, swap in the new starter, then replace the contacts/plunger on the old starter at my leisure and bench test it. This way, if the contacts go again, I have a fresh starter to swap in.
Thanks for the inputs. I replaced the starter today at an independent auto shop who does Lexus and Toyota. Total cost incl. tax $790. Starter $270, Gasket $60 and Labor $430. Lexus wanted $1300+tax but willing to discount to about 1150+tax.