It's actually not real problem on coinbase end, Bitcoin network is taking huge overload atm because many people are sending transactions which as a result has higher fees than ordinary. Coinbase could split that they pay some part of fee and users other but who lieks losing money.

If you are entering crypto currency just to make pure profit I will advise you to buy then Ethereum for instance as some exchanges are trading with ETH pairs which is faster and more convenient in terms of fees. You will need to wait some time before some measures are activated on bitcoin that should solve this issue - it is worked on but development is slow and takes time since when you are dealing with money you want to do it right.