THE GRATEFUL Dead will always remain alive in the hearts of their fans.

Fans of the defunct band proved this once more as they shelled out $1.1 million in an auction of Grateful Dead memorabilia.

Here’s an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle story:

Another treasure was a suitcase full of Garcia’s spare guitar strings. It went for $16,800. An empty red steamer trunk sold for $13,200.

The best stuff, two of Garcia’s old electric guitars, fetched $312,000 and $186,000. But without Garcia to play them, music historians said, they were two old electric guitars.

Garcia, who died in 1995, has already been the drawing card for memorabilia auctions of dubious transcendence. In a Garcia auction in 2005, a Nevada casino paid $2,500 for one of the maestro’s toilets.

As devoted Dead fans know, Tuesday’s auction fell on the 30th anniversary of a beloved concert by the band in Ithaca, N.Y., an event so stellar in Ithaca history that the mayor declared Tuesday to be Grateful Dead Day. Devoted Dead fans point out that it is almost always the anniversary of a beloved Dead concert, someplace.