No question, and we would need to see the price that every single outstanding short share was shorted at to know an exact figure...an impossibility for anyone here, and a damned difficult task even by the shorters themselves.
But I most definitely agree with you, maybe not so much about the run up - I think that was band wagon jumpers more than anything, but nobody was shorting at that time which allowed it to run up naturally on supply and demand basis.
The .28 was hit and the shorters began working in full force. The math part of it confirms your claim that it then becomes an average rather than an original short position, similar to us averaging down when a price falls.
I have seen your posts so know you understand the math end, but for simplicity sake, let's say you are correct about the shorting at .28 and covering at .08. WOW!!! .20 per share to average down previous losing short positions. But that was one day of gain vs one year of losing propositions.
(BTW - for at least an example of confirmation, I put sell orders in at .275 and was not able to sell until about .21, then was not able to buy back in until just under .13, still a tidy profit, but nothing compared to the .20 that shorts were making).
I think shareholders have since become either 1)a little smarter about holding their positions and/or buying instead of selling when shorts try the same thing these days, or 2)the current shareholders have been around a little longer than back then and refuse to be taken in by those playing games.
One last point, and JMHO on this one...how about the SP falling on the day of the Dicon acquisition news. Having played pennies, and the market in general for quite some time, I can attest to the fact that this would have caused quite a run on any board. For SPNG, more air shares hit the market. What is up with that? And another reason I think SPNG mgmt really wants to stick it to those playing these games.
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