One of my guildies did what many people were very skeptical about. He found out about the gem pits very early in his game and decided to get one with no real money down. Took him a year and a half of saving every gem from leveling, achievements and events, all the gems we got from the generous BB event emails. He is now a proud owner of a gem pit which means he saved 20k gems without using his real money to purchase them. Currently he is waiting for his gem stock to be replenished by the gem pit back to 20k to get 2nd pit.
Yes it is possible. Just takes patience
Congrats mate! Very well done!
If you have any questions or looking for some tips on how to - contact Kodran on Ares server.