Baseball card at center of lawsuit

TRENTON, N.J., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A rare baseball card is at the center of a contentious lawsuit, with a New Jersey man accusing a memorabilia company of holding the card hostage.

In his lawsuit against Sportscard Guaranty Corp., James Hass alleges that he sent his near-perfect 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card to the company to see if its imperfections could be fixed, The New York Post said Sunday.

Haas alleges that when he asked for the return of the rare baseball card, thought to be worth nearly $300,000, company officials rebuffed him.

The West Point graduate filed a lawsuit against the collectable company in Morris County, N.J. A judge ruled Friday the card should be returned to Haas after being re-authenticated.

Sportscard Guaranty officials denied Haas' allegations, saying he was simply unhappy with their analysis of the card's condition.

Nonetheless, with his Superior Court case won, Haas told the newspaper he will be happy have his prized possession back.

"I'm a low, under-the-radar guy. I don't want trouble," he said. "This was trouble."