Where can I find the most original buddy icons?  I've visited sites
such as www.iconrate.com and originalicons, what is the best way to
find more sites like these? Also can these be used as forum avatars?

just get flash and create your own icon, or you can do the same search
you were doing before and goto the last page cause its mostlikely
least popular.

Hey inct-ga, I hope the following helps you. 

There are a vast amount of sites online that have original buddy icons
for AOL instant messanger. Here is a listing of some nice ones I have
located:

http://www.iconhell.com/
http://badassbuddy.bolt.com/
http://www.buddysite.com/
http://www.entity.cc/
http://www.iconator.com/
http://www.animeim.com/
http://www.buddyicon.org/
http://www.originalicons.com/
http://www.iconcave.com/

In addition, like previously suggested - you can make your own icons
using an image editing application. The only limitations are that your
icon has to be under 7 kilobytes, and must be 50 pixels by 50pixels in
dimension.

In regards to your second question, yes you can use these icons as
forum avatars. Many forums allow you to submit avatars in jpg/gif
format. Just upload the icons that you downloaded from the above
sites.

Hope this helps!

If you are looking for original buddy icons you can go to
www.iconcave.com , they have over 3,000 buddy icons to choose from,
and I haven't seen any of them on other sites.