That's true about photos of photos. I know the Old Judges are second generation because I'm familiar with the period photography technology-- and what a photographer could and couldn't do. I haven't had an Old Judge in hand for years, so I haven't looked closely at an Old Jude image in a while. I don't know how clear they are.
Many 1800s team photo with a fancy design-- composite, special designs, etc-- involve taking a bunch of original photos, rearranging the images in the design and re-photographing them. They didn't have photoshop back then and that's how they made those designs. See below for an example.
http://www.cycleback.com/1800s/Image188.jpg
You can debate whether or not the cabinet is original. One one hand it involves rephotographing player photos. On the other hand, the final result is so different and unusual, it is original in that sense. In other words, in incorporates second generation images into an original design. And lastly, the photographer may have photographed the players individually with the intent of making this fancy team design. The individual photos were just means to his artistic end ... The photo is definitely vintage, from the 1800s, and is worth a few to several hundred dollars whichever your opinion of the originality of the image.