First of all, I use LED in my house, but there is one bulb, which I keep incondecent, because I can't use any other bulb in there (don't want to go in detail why), sadly this fixture is the most used one, and bulbs which are inside have a rough life (a lot of on off cycles, so usualy they don't last more then a year, max 2years)

I have this lightfixture: https://images2.imgbox.com/dd/b9/tgRgtLaW_o.jpg

and sadly my incondecent lightbulb died inside (it was E27 240V 75W frosted (soft white) bayonet shaped)
the problem is my stock is running dry (I only have 1 40W (to dim) osram frosted bulb left (golf ball shape), and I certenatly don't want to use it for this fixture)

Now I am hunting for a replacment.

The problem is I need a frosted bulb (I can't realy be that picky with the shape, don't even know what shape this fixture was originally designed for)

And getting a frosted bulb is a big challenge
1. I can go to BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina), they have chinese bulbs there, but even there, they don't have frosted bulbs everywhere only regular types can be bought in most stores, and its very hard to get frosted bulbs there and getting there is a challenge (its about 400km from Slovenia and I have no car), so I can't go there willy-nilly
I tried to send someone once, but unfortionatly even if I said to him, to bring me 50W GU10 Halogen bulb, he brought me GU10 LED (its hard if everyone tries to force u to use LED (yes even in BiH), when I asked him, why he brought me LED, he apologized and said: "I just told the salesman what I want, and he brought me this, I thoguht this is alr")
2. I tried Aliexpres, but its very hard to find anything there (and even there they try to trick u into buying LED)
The best I could find was 5 frosted bulbs (max 60W) and (I can't even pick the right shape, they only have A60) for 28€+7€ shipping, which is quite expensive for an incondecent bulb (its about 1€ in BiH, and until some EU morons banned them it had a similar price in Slovenia too)
3. Tried ebay, same story as aliexpres (they want multiple pieces, you can't pick the shape or wattage (I didn't find anything which is more then 60W)
3. Alibaba has them, but sadly they all want like 100 min order (I need a max 10, and I am not sure if there are even right ones)
I managed to find some seller which has 50min order (he can do custom shapes) €0.4146 per lamp: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/A60-Glass-Incandescent-Bulbs-40W-60W_1601573031569.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.normal_offer.d_title.587d13a0AUYZmf&priceId=addda8593c1d4c0395f89cb832c73121

but after messaging with him for a bit he told me shipping to Slovenia will be very expensive since it costs about 1$ per bulb then he didn't want to read my messages anymore

You see, right now I have inside a 25W frosted bulb I found in storage. Not only its to dim (cuz well, its 25W, I need 75W)
but the frosting is very wierd, look at this picture: https://images2.imgbox.com/ea/7c/of7hdxHO_o.jpg

I thought frosted bulbs should glow as a whole, not only a part of it

Maybe I just don't know how to search properly, hopefully someone can give me some hints

Frosted bulbs were banned way (quite a few years) before the 2009 complete general lighting incandescent ban. And it did not make that much fuss, because the clear ones were still allowed till the 2009, so no one stocked them up in any quantities, no one attempted that hard to find loopholes (like with the "heat bulbs" after 2009), plus the available stock was just used up normally, no selection whether it is necessary to use it at that place or not, so they get spent pretty quickly.

why did they ban frosted bulbs way before? Was frosting toxic?

also not sure where are all the loopholes gone? Why can't I buy a 250W heating (industrial) bulb in EU, it seams it stops at 200W?
I remember a few years ago bulbs, had this markings (not to be used in residential area) on them, but even bulbs like that are hard to find now

Not sure if this ban in EU will ever get lifted (in US trump is trying), since LEDs do have its problems

Even if Trump successfully lifted the incandescent lamp ban, you probably wouldn't be able to get them anyways because nobody bought them before and the manufacturers wouldn't be interested in restarting production and import of US-spec lamps, (especially not with the tariffs we have here, because building a whole new factory for such unpopular lamps just isn't feasible), and stores wouldn't bother stocking them because once again, nobody would buy them.

This isn't a political statement, it just reflects consumer choice over the past few years and what makes the most sense business wise for lamp makers.

 U will have  better chance of finding  240 or 277 volt  inside  frost  incandescent in  the  US .  As there  not big demand  for  240 volt  lamps.   All u  need  to  do is
  Type  in  A19 75/  240 V  or  277 V    See if u can  order it  to  your  country .   

The lamp ban was made in small steps because it is a method to avoid backlash. It is done the same way in everything where actions are taken against big number of receiving people

Jeremy's (Funkybulb) suggestion is a good one as long as your US lamps won't be stopped in customs

Alternatively, i would fit a Glass jar of suitable size, which is either frost, or make it frost (a workshop which does sandblasting can make it for you). The jar can be installed by cutting a hole in the lid that matches the lamp holder, and installing it under the ring that holds the lamp shade. However, don't go too far as to not overheat and melt the lamp holder

Have you tried second hand/thrift stores? I still can buy as many incandescents as i want there. Of course those are slowly disappearing too, but right now it's still 20% incandescent standard, 10% halogen, 30% CFL and 40% LED.

Or just mail order them from a different EU country. There are shops that have a giant old stock they're slowly selling off.

I am very curious of why you need exactly incandescent bulb, and not, say a frosted hi-CRI filament LED one, as these tend to emulate incandescents pretty indistinguishable, except may be some IR heat feeling.


Well, if you absolutely insist on a frosted incandescent, my guess you can try to etch a clear lamp surface in a dilute hidrofluoric acid solution (caution - do not allow skin contact).

why did they ban frosted bulbs way before? Was frosting toxic?

It were the first phases of the incandescent ban effort.
The frequent argument at that time for "why not to use more efficient CFL" was cited as "Many fixtures rely on a concentrated light source, so the diffuse CFL's lead to very low light distribution efficiency, negating the energy saving", so first the frosted bulbs were banned first "because for these the CFL's are a good replacement" (citing the most often presented argument at that time), the ban of clear lamp being later was supposed to "allow time for the fixtures to be replaced with ones designed for the energy efficient lamps" (again a quote of an argument in that era).

also not sure where are all the loopholes gone? Why can't I buy a 250W heating (industrial) bulb in EU, it seams it stops at 200W?
I remember a few years ago bulbs, had this markings (not to be used in residential area) on them, but even bulbs like that are hard to find now

The loopholes are still there. Just the demand is so low, it is not economically viable to produce the lamps in such low quantities at a price acceptable for users.
However for higher power lamps it becomes extremely expensive to design them so they stay within E27 technical limits, mainly the temperature due to the power and mechanical stress limits due to the size and weight of these bulbs. So the fact the higher than 200W is not seen that often is more related to the fact there are not that many applications. E.g. reflector IR bulbs for vertiocal cap up position are still produced, for use mainly for retail display food warmers - but their cost practically prohibits their use anywhere else (about 10..20 Eur per bulb).

Not sure if this ban in EU will ever get lifted (in US trump is trying), since LEDs do have its problems

I don't think so. There is no market for them anymore to justify anyone spending effort in lobbying.
Incandescents are not that trivial technology, so they would be quite expensive to make, unless the volume becomes really high. And even then the manufacturing cost won't be much lower than manufacturing LEDs, mainly the lower power range (below 1000lm, where because of the low power, the LED heat management is not that difficult; LEDs can get away without any high temperature materials, so way greater room for cost optimization), while still suffering from the low efficiency and significantly shorter life (even when comparing with the really cheapeese junk).
With that there won't be that high demand for incandescent, so there would never be that high volume production, so the cost would become very high, many times higher than it was when incandescents were the mainstream, so reducing the demand even further.
In fact even without all the bans, the incandescents as a mainstream light source were a dying technology, the only thing the bans did was to forcibly speed it up by a few years and make many people angry.

In fact the bans are alleged to come from the lamp manufaturers at that time: Incandescent selling prices were pushed ridiculously low, allowing little to no profit margin, with the CFL technology maturing there was no room to boost the sales prices, so lamp companies wanted to kill the business. But for marketing treason no one wanted to be the one pulling off the incandescent market first, so they postponed that decision, but that meant to prolong the agony and swallow the disappearing profit.
When the "energy efficiency" bandwagon appeared, they used that opportunity to push a legislative ban, so all makers would stop with the incandescents at once, so no one would need to be the "unpopular first one".
Yes, at that time they miscalculated their position at the CFL market with respect to the far east competition, but that is another story.

I use filament led bulbs everywhere else, I love them

But, if ur electricity jumps to 180V or even less in colder months, leds will eather strobe, or be very dim, incondecent doesnt do that, cuz filament cant cool down rapidly enough, voltage fluctuations arent noticable

Sadly I have very specific needs (my lightsources should not produce RF interference, meaning (filament leds with resistor as a dropper, not some noisy chinesium smps (switch mode power supply)), and it should handle 180V and big voltage fluctuations

The only lightbulb that solves this needs is incondecent (yea maybe I like them, idk, didnt find any alternative yet)

A little heat is a nice extra, that incondecents do

I just wish I would live in a more free coutry where I could actually buy what I need (remember my older relatives complained how in Yugoslavia u could only buy one pair of pants, and how Austria and Italy were magical countries where u could buy everything so they all smuggled goods from there into Yugoslavia, whats funny is that this same people, tell me, u can buy lightbulbs in the store, why are u complaining, I tell them, well you could buy pants in Yugoslavia, u not the ones u wanted, its the same thing as my lightbulbs)

I know its supply and demand, but banning something (just because u dont like something u ban it, so u can then force something new on people), just makes it harder for people, that have specific needs (even if this need is nostalgia)

Have you tried second hand/thrift stores? I still can buy as many incandescents as i want there. Of course those are slowly disappearing too, but right now it's still 20% incandescent standard, 10% halogen, 30% CFL and 40% LED.

Or just mail order them from a different EU country. There are shops that have a giant old stock they're slowly selling off.

Do u know any shops like that?

I only know ebay, aliexpres, alibaba

I know americans have https://www.1000bulbs.com/

But sadly those bulbs are 120V

Have you searched for 'buy incandescent light bulb EU' or with specific countries? https://aurorakontakt.nl/ still sells plenty of incandescent lamps of all sorts.

As for thrift shops you really have to use a local search in your local language.

I just wish I would live in a more free coutry

Freedom is almost always good, but remember this is limiting the freedom of manufacturers and import agencies. Not of individual people. If you want you can still buy whatever you want, if you can find it.
Hell, i can buy incandescents from aliexpress. The chance that those are blocked by customs is extremely small. Apparently they're still in full production there. However, no frosted ones, apparently there is no market for those. So they quit making and/or selling them.

CFLs disappeared from the market here well before they were actually banned. Never have i heard anyone lament their disappereance.

One of the freedoms that free people have in a free society is the freedom to be manufacturers

Now, some things that you might want to manufacture, are controlled by established standards that make sense, to ensure compatibility with other equipment or safety

 - Compatibility is really up to you. If you build something that uses incompatible connectors thats your choice, see what Apple and others do. (At some point they were forced to adopt USB, and although i have no sympathy to Apple, i think this is a very bad precedent)

 - Safety is within your responsibility even if there was no standard written for it, simply because you are responsible for things you provide to people, as long as they use them according to your instructions. The standard helps establish a reasonable agreement of expectations and requirements, which is a very important thing for any manufacturer to have peace of mind

All the latest "greenery" have nothing to do neither with compatibility or safety, it is essentially a virus that got into the system, but for some reason is automatically viewed and presented by everyone as obviously "the right thing" without any 2nd thoughts

The big USB-C push is the best thing that has happened to mobile devices since the universal adoption of the GSM network. I do wish they'd now make some effort to mandate user replaceable batteries.

Not always the best thing actually. USB-C has become also universally adopted as laptop power/expansion port. I still think it is not the best to use USB-C to transfer high powers close to 100W because whatever they say, the thing works close to the physical limits by current densities. Better to be some more conservative. And while modern laptop docking stations do impressive range of things through just a single USB-C port like charging, feeding network interface, connecting a couple of hi-res monitors and some downstream USB ports, protocol got so complicated, that these docking stations has become inescapable buggy, losing ports and monitors here and there... And also you pay for this by a necessity to use a thick unsightly and rigid high current high speed interface cable that poorly matches mechanically to a tiny USB-C connector, tending to break the receptacle on the computer. And that is I am talking about 1-st line brandnames like DELL...