zz,
Straight, flat figured wood is hard to come by. When you cut from a
larger dimension, it's pretty common to get some cupping. Shipping also
is hard on things, going from climate to climate. I bought a piece of
Koa in Hawaii once and by the time I had it shipped home, it looked
pretty bad. I did get it to straighten quite a bit.

If you don't want to use them right away, you can sometimes get a
little of the cupping out by dampening and clamping them between a
couple of solid straight timbers. I haven't done it for a while, but if
I recall, you dampen the cupped side...should be info available online.
Warren