To all those that claim that only long-timers were able to succeed without depositing (much), have a look at
this thread.
While it is true that I am by no means Uber (circa 70k skill), nor have any great items (yet), consider that I have been in
EU for less than a year and a half. If you read the first post carefully, you will also see that I have never ever actively traded (reselling), and have not sold any free-to-get stuff since starting to record my progress. I did sell sweat initially since that was the only option to get PED without depositing at the time.
So it is still possibly to succeed if you have the time, willpower and dedication.