Note: Because there was not substantial information available online for this category, we reached out to trading card game companies to inquire about their products. The most likely culprit that could make trading cards nonvegan is the use of animal products in the adhesives that hold two pieces of card stock together to make a card. Here are the companies’ responses:
Pokemon: As of June 2022, “We can confirm that no animal testing is conducted with our Pokémon card products. We unfortunately cannot confirm if we use materials derived from animals as the materials used are tested for chemicals and safety, but not animal products.”
Magic: The Gathering (Wizards of the Coast): Contacted, no response.
Yu-Gi-Oh (Konami Digital Entertainment): As of April, 2024, “Unfortunately, as the definition of vegan friendly states; A product is vegan friendly if it doesn’t contain any animal extracts or byproducts and has not been tested on animals, we cannot verify playing cards being as such. We cannot even guarantee the use of plant-based ink in on our cards due to Asia/Europe/US/Canada having different processing standards. Even our paper varies from region to region, with no guarantee that the glue or other binder agents are not made from animal byproduct. Though we are unable to provide an answer for your inquiry, we do hope this information proves useful.”